My last few days in France - for now at least!

So, just a couple of days left on the Cote d'Azur, before it was time to head off to the land of the rising sun. It was all getting almost scary - but I kept reminding myself that living in Japan was something I'd been dreaming about for ages.

So, anyway, seeing as I just had a couple of days left on the, I decided to make the most of it. I started off with a lunch with Tutta, by aunt, who lives just next doors at Villeneuve-Loubet. We dedcided to go to Bistrot de La Marine, a place I've been wanted to try out for quite some time. A good choice - the food really was excellent. A bit pricey, but well worth it I thought. And great to see Tutta one more time before heading off!

Now, those of you who know me, know that I love going to the pub. It is true that my pub frequentation has much reduced since I've moved to France, which is probably for the better. I guess it would be an exaggeration to say I have my "regular" over here, but if I did have one, it would certainly be Ma Nolan's in Cannes (not really a local drinking establishment, agreed, but seeing as there's no proper pub in Cagnes, that's kind of inevitable...). So, anyways, off we went with the usual suspects, that is to sayAurelien, Julie and Julien (OK, "no show" Julien isn't really a regular, but I was happy to have him there anyway...). As always, we had a great time catching up - for the last time for a long time maybe ?

On my last night before catching my flight to Tokyo, we decided to make one last visit to Haut-de-Cagnes, the very picturesque old town of Cagnes. A place we used to visit quite frequently when we moved, but hardly ever go to these days... After a pleasant stroll around, we headed off for dinner at one of our favourite restaurants at Cagnes, Les Baux. The food was, as always, great.

That brought an end to my 10 years stay in France. I figure 10 years is long enough in one place, even one which we've loved as much as we've loved the French Riviera and Cagnes-sur-Mer. I think we'd both reached a point in our lives where we wanted a change, and Japan seemed to be the obvious choice.

But France, has been great to me, and who knows, we may well come back to live here before long. So, this may be an "A bientot", rather than an "Au Revoir"...

Weekend in the Alps!

Last year, our good friend Flore (thanks to whom I actually met Mathilde, so just "good friend" is not really enough, I would say!) turned 40, and Christian decided to organize a surprise party for her (with about 10 months delay, a case of "better late than never" then, I suppose). We naturally accepted the invitation, especially as it would give us the chance to say bye to some of our old England gang, before heading off to Japan.

Unfortunately the turnup wasn't quite as good as I'd have hoped, in the end Nick (who always shows up, bless him!), Nathalie and Patrick (who also usually make it) showed up in addition to us. The initial plan had been to go skiing to Megeve, but due to a less-than promising weather forecast, Christian decided to organize the party at La Roche instead.

We arrived pretty late at Friday night, so no partying on the 1st night (getting too old for crazy stuff like that!), but we got up bright n' early on Saturday. After a quick visit at La Roche (which has a pretty charming historic center) to do some shopping, we prepared a nice courgette tartiflette for lunch. Highly unorthodox (a tartiflette without potato, what's that all about!?) , but just as delicious as a classic Savoyard tartiflette!

Since, as mentioned before the weather was too bad for skiing, we set Plan B in motion, which was to have a relaxing afternoon at a spa. And not just any spa, the plan was to head to the famous Les Thermes de Saint Gervais Mont Blanc (famous also for an avalanche that killed a lot of hotel guests). Anyway, Plan B turned out to be pretty much perfect in the end. A spa visit is actually a pretty cool way to hang out, and relax at the same time (there was also a Finnish sauna!). Not the sort of thing me and Mathilde do very often (Japanese onsen being the exception, of course!), but we very much enjoyed the experience!

For the evening, Christian had booked a table at a mad restaurant/night club sort of place. The idea was to have dinner there, and then stay and party all night. Unfortunately, perhaps predictably, things didn't quite work out as planned, as we were so nackered after the dinner than we decided to head back to the house (after all, we had spent so much energy during the day, ahem, resting in a spa!?). We really are old farts - long gone are the days when we could keep it up all day and all night as well!  ;-) Anyway, we had a very nice digestive at the house, and did manage to stay up until midnight I think ;)

On Sunday, we decided to head to Lac Leman, as Lake Geneva is called in France. It's a pretty gorgeous spot, with plenty of lovely little villages to visit, all in splendid scenery. We started in Yvoire, a very picturesque little town, pretty much perfectly located on the lake shore. A very nice place to stroll around.  We had a very nice lunch in a fish restaurant overlooking the lake.

We continued our exploration of Lac Leman at Nernier (I'm not quite sure about this bit, it's a bit of a wild guess, actually, but looking at google maps, I reckon Nernier might've been where we were!), another nice little village to walk around. There were a lot of quotes from writers to be found around the village, not sure whether they actually lived here. Wouldn't have blamed them if they did - this village (whatever it was called!) is a lovely place indeed.

And then, alas, it was time for us to catch our flight at Geneva. A great weekend, great to catch up with everybody again, as alwaays! Merci beaucoup Flore et Christian! 

The way back home!

After a wonderful and memorable weekend, it was unfortunately time to head back home... But like on the way to La Rochelle, we decided to make the best of our trip back and make a couple of stops. After all, I have no idea when we'll be back in this time of France next time (Japanese companies not being famous for their generosity when it comes to holidays...)

We started by visiting Santes, one of the more famous historic cities in Charantes. The first impression is one of a typical provincial French capital. Saintes is not what I would call a touristic hot spot, but it does have a handful of quite interesting historic sights . We started with the roman amphitheater, one of the most well-preserved in France.

The Roman heritage bit done, we walked through some quite picturesque medieval streets, crossed the Charante river (briefly checking out Germannicus' Arch de Triomphe, which stands by the river) to explore some of the Christian heritage of Saintes. We started by visiting the impressive Cathedral de Saint-Pierre, and continued on to the beautifully restored Abbaye Saint-Marie-des-Dames (a monastery for women), which was unfortunately shut.

After a pleasant morning spent in Saintes, we carried on our journey towards Bordeaux. We made another stop at Blaye. The reason to come to Blaye (for tourists, anyway), is to visit the impressive Citadel built by Vauban. It's one of the most impressive works by the very busy military architect. Of crucial strategic importance in the defence of Bordeaux, this UNESCO world heritage sight is indeed a very interesting place to visit. It reminds me a bit of Suomenlinna near Helsinki in that it's avery nice place to walk around, and almost like a small town in its own right. Impressive as this place is though, I reckon Seurasaari is even more impressive!

This time around, we spent the night at a rather curious bed and breakfast south of Toulouse. The old farmhouse has been converted to a BnB by a former airplane technician. Clearly passionate about his region (and classic cars too, he owns two vintage mustangs!), each room is decorated based on a particular theme of his region  - we got the airplane room (Toulouse is the aerospace/aviation capital of France, Airbus being heavily present). A special mention goes to the amazing meal our friendly host prepared for us - all about duck (another regional specialty).

The next day, the plan was to arrive not too late back at home, but we did make time for one stopover, at Martigues, near Marseille. It's a small typical Provencal town, one that features in a lot of impressionist painters' work, so it's a place I've wanted to check out for quite some time. It is a quite nice place to walk around, some spots in the town really are very picturesque indeed, and really show Provence as t was say 50 years ago. And today, with the sun out, and a clear blue sky, Martigues was a beautiful place to walk around indeed!

That brought an end to our lovely mini-holiday/road trip... 

Our very special day

Our big day is coming up. Yes, after all these years, we are getting married. The timing - the fact that this happy event coincides with us going to Japan, might suggest we are doing this for pragmatic reasons. And we are - but the fact of the matter is that it was still something I was pretty excited about!

We wanted to keep the affair low-key, so only invited close family, and Aude and Magaye (after all, we need a bridesmaid and a best man, right?). I was happy that Katja & Janne, as well as dad and Berit could make it, in spite of the rather short notice.

Things got underway with the night before the big day, with a big dinner at Francoise and Joel's place, where our Finnish guests also joined. Predictably, great food was served up, a beef tongue pot au feu was on the menu - doesn't get much more traditionally French than that!

Then, as for our special day, we started off, as tradition has it, at the Puilbureau town hall (we didn't do the church bit). We were blessed with fantastic weather and a blue sky, something that's not at all to be taken for granted in this part of the world. Everything went very well in the town hall, Mathilde looked absolutely stunning in her red dress, and I didn't mess it all up by stumbling, losing my nerve, or forgetting how to answer the questions asked by the mayor!

After plenty of pictures taken in the nice little park outside the town hall, we headed back to Francoise and Joel's place, where plenty of more pictures were taken, and we enjoyed a proper French aperitif. And the bride still looked stunning!

We had the meal at a very nice panoramic restaurant by the Ile de Re bridge, from where the views towards Ile de Re and the beautiful Charantese coastline are absolutely fantastic - especially on a sunny day like this ! (when we tested the restaurant before christmas, the views were considerable less impressive, with a fog obscuring the view). The food was great, the wine was great, in fact, everything was just perfect! There was even a Japanese touch thanks to Aude and Magaye who "made us" perform a Japanese wedding ritual which involves sharing some sake.

After the meal, we all had a nice walk along the beautiful coastal footpath, making the best of the fantastic weather. Sadly, at this point it was time to say good bye to my dad and Berit, who headed back to the hotel to catch some rest. For the night's program, we had booked an Escape room for the "youth" (anybody under 50, basially!). Great fun, actually, and best of all, both groups (we had to split into two groups) completed the mission (which involved WWII submarines - there was a big base at La Rochelle). We then continued partying into the small hours of the morning - a rare thing at my age! ;)

The next day,  alas, it was time to say goodbye to everybody. So how was it, then, to get married ? Well, it was actually quite a magical moment, more so than what I expected. And I'm really happy we did it the "proper way" in the end, together with family and friends. A weekend I will never forget!

Mini road trip to La Rochelle

Time to leave Barcelona, after a couple of wonderful days spent with our great hosts. Time to hit the road, then, destination La Rochelle. The plan was to stop over near Toulouse for the night, but we had a bit of time to kill before then, so we decided to explore Catalunia a bit before heading back to France.

We started by the medieval village of Besalu. It's one of those places (that thankfully still exist) that seems to be stuck in time - kind of exactly how one would imagine a medieval European city. A bit like a smaller, and less touristy version of Girona, if you will. The location is rather stunning, surrounded by the volcanic landscape of La Garotxa. The entry into the village takes visitors across Fluvia river along a beautiful 12th century bridge. The village itself is very picturesque indeed, with medieval cobblestone streets lined up with medieval houses criss-crossing the town. This being a weekday, not many tourists to be seen either...

We carried on our Catalunya tour with a visit of Figueras. The main draw of this decent-sized town is, of course, the Salvador Dali museum. Neither of us is really a huge fan of Mr. Dali, but we decided to pay the museum a visit anyway. I must say the visit didn't really change my opinion of the man nor his art, but it has to be said that the museum is really made in the image of Dali's art - so hats off for that. So it's a bit more than "just a museum". It sort of reminded me of the Ghibli museu we visited in Tokyo in that sense - except that I'm a big fan of the Ghibli films.

We stayed the night in a nice little hamlet north of Toulouse called Parisot, at a lovely country home that a Parisian couple (who decided to retire from their stressful jobs in Paris and become hoteliers in the French countryside!) had converted to rather charming BnB accommodation. For dinner, we decided to head into Gaillac, the nearest decent-sized town, for dinner at the fanciest place in town (tonight was, after all, valentine's day).

The next day, we decided to take our time driving towards La Rochelle. This part of France is famous for its bastides (fortified villages which were built under Royal authority during the middle ages), so we decided to visit a few of them. Our first stop was Lisle-sur-Tarn, a very picturesque little village located between Parisot and Gaillac (where we had dinner the night before).

Even prettier was Castelnau-de-Montmiral. It's one of the more famous bastides in the region, and quite rightly so, the place is pretty much your perfect French medieval village - perched n a hilltop, surrounded by rolling, hilly countryside (almost reminiscent of Tuscany). The village itself is superbly preserved, with cobblestone streets lining up beautiful, well-restored medieval houses. So if you need to visit just one bastide near Toulouse, you wouldn't do wrong choosing this one!

The last bastide on this visit was Bruniquel, as we were leaving Bastide country and approaching the motorway. Bruniquel is perhaps a bit less picturesque and smaller than the other places we went to as far as the village itself is concerned - but the main draw here is an impressive medieval castle that dramatically overlooks the river in the valley below. Talk about a dramatic place to place a castle! Unsurprisingly, several films have used the castle as a location.

Before arriving at La Rochelle, we decided to do one last stopover. Bordeaux, and the surrounding wine country, is quite conveniently located a couple of hours from La Rochelle, so we decided to pay a visit to Saint-Emillion, one of the more famous wine-producing towns in the region.  There is plenty more to Saint-Emillion than its wines, though, as it's a very picturesque town indeed, with its impressive cathedral perched above the medieval town, watching over its citizens. Needless to say, the surrounding countryside with its vineyards make for a pretty much perfect setting. So the perfect place for a coffee and a quick stroll around, before finishing a long drive.

Quite a rewarding little road trip, all in all! 

Vintage @ Cagnes

One of the most famous features of Cagnes-sur-Mer is the Hippodrome. When the horse races aren't on, they often organise various fares and other events there. And on this particular Saturday, there was a Vintage fare on. Since we had no other plans for the day, we decided to give it a go...

Before heading down memory lane, we decided to try a new Japanese restaurant (the only one in Cagnes, unless I am mistaken?), Yoko, for lunch. Really lovely place: intimate, with just a few tables. Great, authentic food, properly Japanese, cooked by a Japanese lady. And the prices area pretty reasonable too. Quite liked the green tea tiramisu for dessert as well. Warmly recommended!

The vintage fare was, mm, interesting. Actually, it was mostly about vintage clothing, which is not really my cup of tea, as the Brits would say... But it was good fun, anyway! We ran into our good friend Marie as well, who was there with a friend of hers. I did get my share of vintage fun too, as there was a booth selling vintage movie posters, and there was a pretty nice collection of vintage cars outside as well (some nice Mustangs, 'Vettes and custom hot rods on display...)

All in all, a pretty nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. And good to catch up with Marie as well (who's off to Thailand for 6 weeks – lucky her...)

Circuit de Castellet

Amazingly, for this Sunday, Aurelien and Julie were joining Antoine's gang and us for a hike (I say amazingly, since Aurelien has stated he is allergic to sport and excercise). The plan was to meet up at Saint-Jeannet, and then hike up to the Baou de Saint-Jeannet. Or actually, turned out we ended up walking the Circuit the Castellet – a 4 hour hike around the Baou.

We started off by walking through the village, which is typically picturesque (I think I've used that expression rather a lot on my blog?). Passing by the nice little chapel at the exit of the village, we embarked on our hike. The hike took us through a surprisingly pristine valley (considering all the construction on the Riviera), up towards the ruins of an old castle.

From there, we started heading towards the Baou (baou, btw, is Provencal for cliff). But before taking the final path up to the top, we ended up walking around the Baou and approaching Saint-Jeannet from the other side. We did stop for a much needed picnic lunch.

And naturally, once we were back at Saint-Jeannet, we awarded ourselves with some drinks at the local bar. All in all, a very nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Not 100% sure Aurelien agrees, though ? ;)

BBQ at Mikko and Marianne's

We were very happy to get the invitation to go for a BBQ at Mikko's and Marianne's place this weekend – it's always nice to see them, and almost as importantly, we always eat very well there. And then there is the sauna, of course... Nahtalie, Henna and Aki also came along for the event.

The food was predictably tasty – although perhaps a bit less “meaty” than usually (Henna is a vegetarian). But thankfully, Mikko is a confirmed carnivore, so there was plenty of meat to eat as well (in fact, in spite of our best efforts, we didn't manage to eat it all). We had a predictably good time, especially when me and Aki climbed into Aleksi's little toy house (Aleksi is 2 years old, by the way!). Amazingly, no damage was done.

After the BBQ and the near destruction of Aleksi's little house, the boyz naturally went for a sauna. That is definitely one of the things I miss from my home country... We had some pretty good “löylys”, and also put the swimming pool to good use.

So a great day, then! In fact, so great, that me and Mathilde had to skip the rest of our plans for the day (visiting Negresco hotel, as it was exceptionally open to visitors this weekend, and going to the movies). And in fact, much to my shame, I have to admit I didn't even have dinner in the evening, I was that stuffed...

Exploring Le Cannet

After a rather lazy weekend, we figured it was time to activate ourself on Sunday. Our initial plan had been to go hiking, but the weather forecast looked distinctly off-putting, so we decided for a bit of culture instead.

So we decided to head to Le Cannet, where they've recently opened a museum dedicated to Bonnard. Aurelien and Julie, who live in Le Cannet, were happy to join us when we told us about our plans, since they'd not been to the museum.

We started our visit by checking out the Tour des Danys. This old tower, dating back to the 16^th century, used to guard the entrance to Le Cannet on the road from Cannes (Le Cannet is basically just next to Cannes). From there, we headed off to the old village. Quite a picturesque little spot, I have to say (I guess that shouldn't surprise me, almost all towns here do have a picturesque old part). After walking around the cute cobble-stone streets for a bit, we were joined by Julie and Aurelien.

After some deliberation, we decided to go for lunch before visiting the museum (which meant we had to scrap our plan of having a picnic lunch on the beach at Cannes, darn!). We chose one of the two nice-looking restaurants on the main square in the old village, and ate rather well, I have to say. I had some nice prawn skewers, followed by a nice café gourmand (basically a coffee with a selection of small desserts – usually a safe choice!).

The museum itself was pretty interesting. The theme of the current exhibition was to explore Mr. Bonnards relationships with other painters from the same period through their art. So actually, there were also some quite interesting works of art from for example Matisse and Monet, in addition to paintings from Bonnard, of course. The collection was pretty small (takes less than an hour to see everything), but I still reckon this museum is well worth a visit.

Our very pleasent afternoon finished with some drinks in Aurelien and Julie's lovely garden!

Jocke visiting!

This week, my good friend Jocke decided to pop over for a short visit. As usually with Jocke, confirmation came rather late – but in the end neither the looming Lufthansa strike nor the last-minute work assignment (Jocke is a pilot) materialized, so he showed up at the expected time at the airport – one bag short unfortunately (Lufthansa seem to do that quite a lot...).

On the first night, we decided to dine in – an oven-baked free-range chicken did the job, with some nice rose wine to wash it down. And that was naturally followed by a couple of glasses of Mathilde's grandmum's, as well as grandfather's calva, and a couple of glasses of the '44 I've also made. More than a couple of glasses, actually... Strange how that home-distilled calva always seems to go down well with my fellow Finns...

The next morning, we didn't get up quite as early as planned (I wonder if it had anything to do with all that calva the night before?). But, we still managed to stick to our plan, which was to go sailing. We rented a catamaran at the sailing club at the Cros de Cagnes, where I sailed for a year. The session went rather well, as we sailed back and forth between the Port de Saint-Laurent-du-Var and the Villeneuve-Loubet Marina. Seems that sailing is a bit like riding a bike – once you learn it, you never forget ? Good fun, maybe I should sign up at the club again ?

All that sailing meant we'd developed quite a healthy appetite, so after some deliberation, we ended up going to one of my favourite restaurants on the Cote d'Azur – the Dame Nature in Saint-Laurent-du-Var. Their concept is to make good food from natural (mostly organic) ingredients. A bit pricey, but the quality of the food is really excellent. I had the Parillada a la Plancha this time – an excellent choice. One of the best seafood dishes I've had for a really long time... The dessert was absolutely delicious as well. Dame Nature certainly didn't disappoint – in fact I reckon it was better than on previous occasions.

After our rather late lunch, we didn't have time to do much after dinner actually. I did want to show Jocke a proper Provencal village, so we decided to head down to Saint-Paul-de-Vence for a quick tour. It's certainly one of the most picturesque villages on the Riviera – but a bit touristy unfortunately. I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was, considering this was a weekday evening in September, but alas, the tourists were there in great numbers. That, of course, takes nothing away from the beauty of the place. And it was a fruitful visit; Jocke purchased some local art, and I finally found Marc Chagall's grave in the grave yard just outside the village (last time we visited, we failed to find it).

For the evening, we'd booked a table at another one of our favorite restaurants, Entre Cour et Jardin, located in Haut-de-Cagnes (the historic village in our dear hometown). After the appetite-inducing hike up to the top of the village (it is located on a hill, with a rather steep cobble-stone street leading to the top), and a short exploration of the medieval village (in my opinion, every bit as pretty as Saint-Paul-de-Vence), we made our way to the restaurant. Entre Cours et Jardin was every bit as good as last time we came. I would say the place is pretty close to deserving a Michelin Star, at least so far as the qulity of the food goes. Both the starter and the main course were excellent, as were the amuse-bouches and their bread. Should you ever find yourself in Cagnes-sur-Mer, this is the place to have dinner (but do book in advance...).

The next day, we had a rather ambitious program. We started off by heading down to Cannes, from where we took the ferry to Ile Saint-Marguerite, the bigger of the Iles de Lerins. It's a very nice place indeed to wonder around, with well-preserved nature and dramatic, rocky coastline. After a short hike around the Western half of the island, we made our way to the Fortress, located on the northern shore of the island. We decided to pay a visit. Quite an interesting place – reminds me a bit of Suomenlinna in Helsinki. What the fortress is doubtlessly most famous for is the fact that The Man With the Iron Mask was a prisoner here for a number of years (we visited his cell). The identity of the mysterious chap has never been established with certainty – there are quite a few theories though... (for example: the brother of Louis XI; Moliere, an Italian spy...). You may recall a movie about the chap, starring Leonardo DiCaprio...

After a rather quick visit, we had to speed back to Cannes for lunch. As we wanted to top the restaurants from the day before, we'd booked a table at a Michelin-starred establishment called Park 45, located on the Croisette (it's the restaurant of the Grand Hotel). And it would be a bit harsh to say we were disappointed – the food was excellent, and the service was pretty good too. But, it's true, the service was perhaps not quite as good as I'd expect from a Michelin-starred restaurant. And the food, although very good, wasn't really better than we'd had the day before. Don't get me wrong – we had a very nice meal, but there are better “fine dining” places on the Riviera than this, I reckon.

Our appetites sated, we then carried on to the Var department – the next item on the agenda was wine-tasting. The Var department is very famous for its Côtes de Provence rosé wines – we decided to make our way to Les Arcs, which is kind of the capital of the Côtes de Provence region. We stopped by at two places. We felt we weren't very well welcomed at the first vineyard we visited – but their rosé wines were really excellent, so I decided to get two bottles. The second place was a bit nicer, with a nice lady giving us a good overview of their wines, and let us sample quite a few bottles. I liked the wines less, but decided to take a bottle of white, anyway.

After a short walk around Lorgues (a typically pretty Provencal village, yet again), we started driving back towards Cagnes. But, since we still had some daylight to enjoy (and the sun was finally out, after a rather grey morning), we decided to take the scenic route – that is, drive by the Massif d'Esterel. There is a very nice road that follows the coastline – the views are just stunning (especially in the evening light, as it makes the ochre-coloured rocks seem almost red).

After dinner at home, we decided to hit the Cagnes-sur-Mer bar circuit. I'm being slightly ironic here è there are hardly any bars, and unbelievable as it may sound, I've never been to any of them, although I've lived here for close to 5 years. Well, better late then never. We hit three of the establishments by the seaside – I think we accounted for about 50% of the customers at each place. Oh, well, at least I can say I've done a pub crawl in Cagnes-sur-Mer now ;)

That pretty much brought an end to Jocke's short but intensive visit. The next day, after a swim on the beach, it was time to take Jocke to the airport. Well, it was good fun, that's the main thing!

Flore and Christian's Big Day!

So today, on this sunny Saturday (with heat waves hitting France with full force!) was Flore's and Christian's big day, time to tie the knot. The grand occasion was taking place in their home town, at Le Roche sur Foron. We made our way down to La Roche with Chie and Geoff, dropping them off at their hotel and then checking it at ours (a nice place, but a bit outside the city center – we were very happy with the swimming pool though, given the heat!).

After a brief walk around the historic center, Mathilde headed off to get her hair fixed, whilst I joined the rest of the gang for lunch at the main square. Great to see everybody again – although the gang was the same as last night. After a couple of aperitifs, a simple but filling lunch, and some socializing, we parted our separate ways to get ready for the evening's festivities. Naturally, a quick jump in the swimming pool was absolutely called for – the heat was on, as they say...

The evening's festivities started off at the town hall (that's where all the legal papers are signed). It was a very nice little ceremony, it looks like the mayor (or vice-mayor) had actually put a fair bit of effort into the speech – in fact it sounded more like a best man's speech than the usual formulaic stuff the mayors come out with at French weddings. He even gave little Lilian a medal (for being a nice boy?). After all the paperwork had been signed, and all the photographs had been taken, the couple headed off with their children Lilian and Melodie, in true French style – yes, you guessed it, in a Citroën 2CV! How cool is that?

The post-wedding celebrations were taking place in a true Savoyard castle – now that's what I call style. Food-wise, everything was tip top, starting with the starter munchies and aperitifs on the terrace, continuing with the spit-roasted pig (a true delight) as well as all the other stuff that went with it. One thing is sure about French weddings – you always eat well at them! We were seated at the “French foreign legion table” (ie. the French friends from our group who used to live in the UK) – does this mean I'm becoming French ? Hmm...

As can be expected when the groom is called Christian, the entertainment was well taken care of. Most of the entertainment was actually provided by the groom himself, as he sang together with his band, and then proceeded to conquer the dance floor, running around topless towards the end of the evening. I think you've guessed it, everybody had an absolutely brilliant time! There were rather a few strange photos in my camera, of people I don't really know – I wonder who took them (surely not me!?).
A few hours of mad partying later, we were happy to be whisked off to our hotel by Philippe (him and Aniko were staying at the same hotel as us). There was a bit of a nasty surprise in store of us, though, as we'd handed in our key at reception before heading off. And naturally the reception was closed. Thankfully, I actually had a look behind the reception desk, and found our key, before jumping over the desk and breaking down the office door ;).

The next day, we headed over to the happy couple's for the traditional “post-wedding brunch”. Yummie, more eating and drinking. After a couple of hours of eating, drinking and socializing (I like that about France – a lot of that taking place here!) it was time for us to say our tear-filled goodbyes to everybody and hit the road!

We stopped for the night at a small village in the Ardeche called Saint-Andéol-de-Berg, where Mathilde had booked a rather nice Bed and Breakfast. We were quite lucky to be there during the village fete. We were treated to the local version of punch at the rather reasonable price of one Euro per glass. There was also a petanque competition (the Lyon version of the game), which was rather entertaining to watch.

The next day, we had a brief stop at Orange, before heading home. I've been keen to visit Orange for quite a while, since I've heard the Roman theater is rather impressive. And impressive it was! It was built during the 1^st century AD, and is possible the best-preserved Roman theater in Europe (certainly in France) – it is one of only three Roman theaters in the world with the wall behind the scene still standing. The audio-guide visit was rather interesting; tracing the theaters colourful history over the centuries, and also going into quite a lot of detail in describing the role of the theater in Roman culture. The rest of Orange is not overly interesting, and the historic museum opposite to the theater is actually rather disappointing (I would've expected more items from the Roman era to be on display...). But the theater on its own certainly was worth the diversion!

From Orange, we drove back home without further stops. All in all, a memorable week spent in the Alps, with a fantastic wedding to top it off. Merci beaucoup, Flore et Christian!

Via Italy to Haute Savoie!

Time to head to the Alps then, for our dear friends’ Flore and Christian’s wedding. We decided to spend a few days in Chamonix before the great occasion, passing by Italy…

Our first stop on the way to Chamonix was Andora, a small town on the Ligurian coast, where we stopped for lunch (pizza in a Chinese restaurant in Italy – that’s a first! No complaints about the pizza, though!). Our next stop was at Alessandria, a rather big town in the Piedmonte region. The main sight at Alessandria is the citadel – a rather imposing construction, which reminds me a bit of Suomenlinna at Helsinki (architecturally speaking, the setting is rather different…). The place could do with a bit of a revamp – interesting challenge for Alessandria to find a use for the place as it’s absolutely huge. There are already a couple of museums there, which we didn’t visit though… After a short walk in the town center, which is rather typically northern Italian, we carried on…

We stopped to sleep at the picturesque town of Ivrea, which is the capital of the Canavese area. It’s a pretty interesting place to stroll around, with a rather impressive medieval castle overlooking the old town, with an equally imposing cathedral nestled next to it. Today was actually an important catholic holiday in Italy – Assumption. Well, to be fair, it was actually the day after, but seemed that pretty much all the restaurants had decided to close already the night before… Thankfully, we found a very nice little Enoteca to sate our appetite…

After dinner, it was time for the big spectacle. Next to the cathedral, they had put up a big wooden frame of a woman (in the Blessed Virgin Mary’s honor, I suppose?), which they proceeded to cover with flowers. It was quite an operation, involving ladders, firemen, carts brining in flowers, an orchestra providing the music, and the townspeople cheering on the work. Nice little tradition – but we did decide to head back to the hotel before they finished…

We hit the road early in the morning, to tackle the Mont Blanc tunnel as early as possible (we were afraid of traffic jams…). The last leg of our voyage was surprisingly painless, and we arrived in Chamonix well before lunchtime… We were staying at a rather nice hotel, with an outdoors swimming pool with a view of Mont Blanc and the Aguille de Midi. Not bad… Our dear friends Chie and Geoff were also staying at the same hotel – the plan was originally to wait for them at the hotel and then do some stuff together. Unfortunately, they had some trouble with their flights getting to Geneva, so we ended up heading out on our own.

After a tartiflette (potatoes, lardons and cheese – that’s Savoyard cuisine for you!) for lunch, we took the Aguille de Midi cable car up the Plan de l’Aguille (which is kind of half way up to the Aguille – at 2317 meters’ altitude). It’s a rather stunning cable car ride, that’s for sure… From there, we first hiked up to the blue lake, an easy 15 minutes’ walk from the cable car stop. After that, we tackled the legendary walk up to the Mer de Glace (which is, at 7 kilometers, the longest glacier in France). The hike was pretty amazing, the views over Chamonix and the surrounding mountains were just absolutely stunning. No other word for it.

La Mer de Glace, of course, is equally stunning. The view of the glacier, creeping down between Aiguille du Moine and Trélaporte, is absolutely amazing, as you approach it from above, on the hike… I was quite busy with my camera for a few minutes, I can tell you that. The walk then took us down past the Montenvers hotel (yes, those crazy Frenchmen actually built a hotel next to the glacier), to the train station! Yes, there is a cogwheel train up to the glacier as well! All the modern comforts provided, eh… As we’d have enough hiking for one day, we took the train down to Chamonix…

For dinner, we met up with Chie and Geoff. It was absolutely fantastic to see them – we hadn’t seen them for a couple of years, which was when they were suddenly sent over to Malaysia on a construction project with very short notice. So we were very eager to hear about their adventures! We picked a very nice French restaurant for the occasion (thanks Tripadvisor for the good advice!), and spent a very nice evening catching up and hearing about those adventures (it seems Chie and Geoff spent a couple of very interesting and busy years over in KL!).

The next day, we were meeting up with Mathilde’s colleagues from her school, a large number of whom had decided to spend holidays in Haute Savoie for some reason (I don’t know what it is – but we always seem to run into Mathilde’s colleagues on our holidays!?) . Anyways, we decided to meet up for a picnic at Lac Leman (a.k.a. Lake Geneva). Before the picnic, we decided to pay a quick visit at Yvoire, a rather famous historic village located on the lake. Yvoire is undeniably a very picturesque medieval village, and stunningly located, but unfortunately it seems a bit overrun by tourism.

After our brief visit, we met up with the gang at the lake, near Thonon-les-Bains. Our dear friends from California; Gilles, Valerie, Celian and Hector where there (very well stocked up for the picnic!), and we were later joined by Vincent (who’s a real Savoyard) and his family, as well as Bruno and his girlfriend. We spent a very pleasant day at the lake indeed, eating, drinking wine & pastis, chatting away, swimming, and playing tarot cards! (the kind of game I could get into, methinks!). Very nice to meet up with everybody again.

We had dinner back at Chamonix – Chie had picked a place with the rather interesting name “Moustache et ses filles” in one of the back streets. And it was an excellent choice indeed – I really liked the food they served there (and the company was of course top-notch as well!). We even spotted Mr. Moustache having his food towards the end of the meal as well (I suppose the waitresses must be his daughters then?).

The next day, a bunch of friends were coming over to Chamonix, the plan was to head up to the Mer de Glace (yes, we had already been there, but hadn’t really had the time to properly check out the glacier). Aldo and Dorine came with their two little ones, as well as Nathalie and Patrick with their clan (including, of course, my dear godson Florian!). After the train journey up to the glacier, and a quick picnic lunch, we started exploring… We first made our way down to the ice cave, which is carved each year into the glacier. It has to be redone every year, as the glacier moves about 90 meters down the valley each year… It’s pretty cool, the ice cave, with the light effects, and various statues carved out of the ice (a pity they don’t serve any drinks at the bar, though…).

We then made our way back up to the train station, and checked out a couple of rather interesting museums. All in all, it’s a very interesting place, well worth spending a few hours at. We then made our way back to Chamonix on the train. After an hour or so of strolling around Chamonix (and trying to meet up with Chie and Geoff – we managed eventually), we decided to have dinner at one of the touristy restaurants in the town center.

For the evening, me, Chie and Geoff made our way over to the Roche-sur-Foron, where we were meeting up with the rest of the “English gang” going to the wedding, for a couple of drinks. Almost all the usual suspects were present: Nick, Sinhung, Olivier, Raphaelle, Philippe, Aniko and Isabelle (and of course Flore and Christian). Apart from drinking beer, we also tried the local rodeo – fortunately the bull wasn’t a real one though… I was quite pleased with my 19 seconds on the mechanical bull (which entitled me to a 3rd place behind Philippe and Ollie, I reckon).

What a fantastic reunion, and pre-wedding celebration!