A busy weekend in Nice

Due to our project to move out to Japan, we are trying to squeeze as much as we can out of our social life. After all, we want to say bye bye to everybody we know here, before heading off. Working in Japan, I'm afraid I shan't be having a lot of holidays to travel back to Europe with, unfortunately...

So on Friday night, we were more than happy to join Chris, Aurore and Marie for a dinner at Chris and Aurore's place. More than happy, since we always have a blast with them, and we know the food will be excellent and plentiful! As it was, this time around as well. We had a raclette, one of my favourite dishes in France. Raclette is a dish from the Alps, basically involving potatoes, ham and melted cheese - how could one possibly go wrong with ingredients like that, eh? This was followed up by equally excellent deserts prepared by Mathilde and Aurore. Yummie!

On Saturday, we managed to catch Naim, who was visiting Nice. We agreed on a lunch at Safari, a nice restaurant with a terrace on Cours Salyea. It's a place we go to very rarely, and even if it is a very touristy place, the food is very good. Probably the best restaurant on uber-touristy Cours Saleya. And since we were blessed with some of that lovely winter sun that often hits Nice this time of the year, that terrace was just a fantastic place to be...

Afterwards, we walked over to Rue Bonaparte, a trendy street by Place Garibaldi, where we met up with Marie and Mathilde's colleague Olivier for some coffee and cakes.

Ah, what a wonderful day! Nice is another place in this part of the world I will miss a lot, I will certainly fondly remember  sunny winter days like this!

Mountain biking in the snow

It's been a while since I've done mountain biking, what with our four months spent in Asia and all... So I was quite happy to accept Philippe's invitation to join him for a bit of cycling at the wonderful Massif d'Esterel. The original plan was to join up with a group of "local lads", but seems that the local lads chickened out due to the somewhat chilly weather, so it was just me and Philippe in the end, then.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the weather was indeed somewhat chilly - in fact, the temperature was below zero in the shady part of our route. Which actually meant we ended up cycling in the snow at times! Which was actually good fun, and not as difficult as I expected. I did take it quite easy going downhill.

I even accepted the challenge to cycle up Mount Vinaigre - I had my doubts about the viability of that one,since it does take a bit of hassle cycling up to the top, at the lofty altitude of 614 meters (OK, fair enough, it doesn't sound very impressive, but it seemed that way from a couple of hundred meters downhill...), and given my lack of recent practice.

But, I agreed to the folly, and even made it to the top! And the view from up there was as magnificent as ever! Cycling around this beautiful part of the world is one of the things I will miss, once we make our way over to Japan...

New Year in Nice

Often, New Year's eve involves travelling somewhere for us, but we figured we'd done enough travelling recently, and decided to spend new year on the Cote d'Azur this time around. Luckily, Chris and Aurore invited us over to their place to celebrate the arrival of 2017 together with them, Marie and some other friends of theirs.

It was all great fun! The food was fantastic, as it always is at their place, starting with a very classy aperitif, and crowned by some very tasty "christmas logs". There was a great carnival feel to proceedings, with giltter, balloons and other colourful stuff being thrown about.

We finished the mad evening with a very funny game, which involves one person reading out a more or less mundane phrase (less mundane meaning something rather rude/dirty) from a card, and then each participant selecting a more or less mundane word or expression (less mundane meaning rather rude/dirty) from a set of cards, which basically makes for the most funny and/or disgusting sentence. Sounds simply, but oh my is it fun (especially after a few drinks).

So, a very nice way of welcoming 2017, I reckon, even if some of the changes 2017 brings are kind of scary (what with a Trump presidency, looming Brexit, continuing massacres in Middle east, just to mention a few things...). Stay positive, I say!

Quick post-xmas visit in Finland

After a Christmas spent in La Rochelle, I still had enough holidays to briefly pop over to Finland, which I was happy to do. As I was only staying for 3 days and a bit, the program was going to be rather tight, as I was trying to squeeze in meeting as many people as possible.

We started off with a post-Christmas meal at Tomi's place back at Haravakuja. It was great, as always, great to see everybody, including Nanna, Tomppa, their kids and Julia, my dear niece. I naturally ate way too much...

The next day, I was planning to meet Janne, Tomi and my dad in Kallio, where we were planning on having lunch in Oiva, a traditional Kallio haunt located on Porthaniankatu. I decided to walk down to the restaurant with dad - I really love walking around Helsinki. It was particularly nice on a cold, sunny winter day we were lucky enough to experience. A pity there wasn't any snow, though...

Our panoramic stroll took us by the railroad station, through Kaisanniemi park (with the botanical gardens), past Hakaniemen Tori, up Kolmas Linja to the restaurant. Lovely little stroll! The meal itself was your typical Finnish luncheon restaurant buffet deal - pretty good quality. I liked the place - unpretentious, with a retro feel, with a nice mixed clientèle of Kallio hipsters, local old-timers and office workers having their lunch there.

The next day, I had the foolish idea to go for yet another Christmas swim. Clearly, the La Rochelle experience wasn't enough... My dad was foolish enough to join me. We decided to head to Löyly, a fancy new seaside sauna opened a couple of years ago, a pretty trendy place these days, apparently. It's a place I've wanted to check out for some time. It felt like a pretty good plan, since it would've allowed us to combine a nice hot sauna bath with the rather wintery dip in the Baltic. 

Alas, though, Löyly was closed, so we only went for the icy dip in the Baltic part of the plan. Still, a lovely experience - the views from the sea are pretty lovely, and the sunny weather actually made the experience significantly more enjoyable than my swim in La Rochelle. 

The mandatory foolish swim bit done, I decided to walk to Kallio again, where I was meeting Janne, Katja, Yang and Rasse for some escape room action. The walk was lovely, as it was the day before - this time taking me through Eira, past Johanneskirkko, Esplanaadi, the Senate Square and so forth. Each time I walk around Helsinki, I get quite nostalgic and a bit regretful about not living there (the feeling of regret is usually quickly dispelled when I compare the Finnish weather to the Cote d'Azur weather between September and April....).

We did better in the Escape Room than last year (when I had a go at it with Janne and Katja) - we managed to escape with minutes to spare! Yoppii! After a nice lunch in my favourite Middle Eeastern restaurant in Kallio, Sandro, we headed off to Janne and Katja's place, where we had one of our nerdy, and very enjoyably board game nights. 

And then, alas, the next day, it was time to fly back to France. It was short, but oh so sweet!

Christmas in La Rochelle

Time to celebrate Christmas! Most years, we celebrate Christmas apart, which is a real pain, so this year we decided to to do it together. So the plan was to head down to La Rochelle a few days before xmas, spend Christmas even there, and then for me to head down to Paris, from where I was to fly to Finland for a bit of post-Christmas fun.

As we were flying via. Nantes, we naturally decided to pop over at Aude and Magaye's place for a quick visit - they kindly cooked a nice lunch for us. From there, we took Bla Bla car down to La Rochelle (travelling between "provincial towns" in France is a bit of a pain, so a car pooling service like Bla Bla car is really handy).

Our stay in Puilboreau was pretty much as usual - that is to say, very nice. Francoise and Etienette sure know how to spoil us with good food, of the home-cooked, hearty kind, which of course is the best! Apart from that, our routines involved daily games of Scrabble with Joel (where I disgracefully and consistently lost, as usual), and a few runs in the surrounding countryside.

We did pop over to La Rochelle to catch a movie - the excellent, if somewhat depressing Manchester-on-the-Sea. La Rochelle is definitely one of the nicer cities in France, picturesque, yet human sized. I love walking around the old port - even if the rainy weather wasn't the best for outdoors activity.

On Thursday, we went for lunch to a nice restaurant just across the sea from the Ile de Re, a very beautiful, charming island we cycled around last year. After a tasty lunch in the panoramic restaurant (a pity the fog meant the view towards Ile de Re wasn't exactly splendid), we crossed the bridge and walked around for a bit in Rivedoux, the first village on the other side of the bridge. A lovely little place, with its typical white houses, and lovely sea-side views. We also checked out La Flotte, the next village down the coastline, this one even more picturesque, with its beautiful little port.

No Christmas celebration is complete without a Christmas swim. I was a little bit put off by the rather miserable weather, which showed no signs of brightening up. But, filled with foolish pride, I decided to have a swim anyway, accompanied by Mathilde and Herquise (who both wisely stayed on the beach, though). I can't say it was a very enjoyable swim (compared to the winter swimming on a sunny Cote d'Azur). But hey, at least I can now proudly say I did it, right? (OK, fair enough, nobody cares...)

For Christmas eve, we were joined by Nathalie, Herve and their lovely rascals Titouan and Colin, both energetic as usual. The food was, as expected, absolutely delicious (oysters, followed by pearl hen, followed by my favourite - Le Buche de Noel!). And then of course we got to open the pressies - yoppii. All in all, a fantastic Christmas celebration then!

The next day, 'twas sadly time for me to say bye bye to Mathilde and the others, jump on the train, and head down to Paris, from where I was catching a flight to Helsinki.

Circuit de Castellet

One of the things we missed during our 4 month absence from the Cote d'Azur is for sure the nature. Asia in general, and Japan in particular, can feel rather crowded at times. Hiking in Japan was quite a relevation - on our hike up Mount Tsukuba, we sometimes had the feeling of being stuck in a Parisian traffic jam or something...

So, this sunny weekend, we decided to do a hike. After some deliberation, we decided to do a hike called "Le Circuit de Castellet" near Saint-Jeanette we'd already done a few years back (we've done all the coastal walks available in our hiking books already!). We started off by walking around the village for a bit, trying to find the start of the trail - which in itself was pretty nice, since the French medieval villages is something else I missed in Asia (there is sadly quite little left in terms of historical buildings in Japan). Saint-Jeanette is not one of the most famous ones on the Cote d'Azur, but it's certainly a charming place to stroll about.

We eventually found the footpath, and headed off. The hike took us around the Baou de Saint-Jeanette (rising up to the lofty altitude of 802 meters) - a popular spot for people doing hang-gliding. This hike didn't go to the top, rather we walked around it, ending up at a nice ruined medieval sheepfold, where we stopped for a picnic lunch.

From there, the footpath took us back to the village. All in all, quite a fantastic way to spend a wintery Sunday afternoon.

Le 44

It's been a while since we've been to a proper restaurant in France, what with our 4 month absence 'n all (ahem, I forget myself, we were in Lyon a couple of weekends ago weren't we?

So I was more than happy to accept when Julien and Charlotte (who are very much up to speed with the best places to eat on the Cote d'Azur) suggested joining them as well as Aurelien and Julie to check out a nice new restaurant in Antibes they'd tried and enjoyed.

The place is called "Le 44" - since their menu (with starter, main course & desert) costs 44 Euros (does that mean they will have to rename the place when they have to raise prices due to inflation and the place just being so darn popular - which will inevitable happen when people discover this gem of a place).

I loved the place - the food was really excellent. Almost Michelin-star quality, but without all the fancy pancy stuff that sometimes comes with those Michelin Star establishments. We had a rather lengthy chat with the young, energetic, friendly and extremely friendly chef. I rather like his approach to cooking - using local, reasonably sourced ingredients.

So, should you ever find yourselves in Antibes - do come here - but remember to book (the place is popular, and when people find out just how good it is, it will become even more so!)