Japanese birthday dinner

It was the time of the year to celebrate my lovely Mathilde's birthday again. Normally, we go away somewhere for the weekend, but this time around, we've been rather busy recently (and we will be also for the rest of the summer!), so we decided to not go for that this time around.

Now, as you know, we are huge fans of Japan, so it felt natural to go for something Japanese. I could've prepared a meal for her, sure, but I figured this sort of thing is better left to the experts. So I booked a table at Yoshi instead, a rather fantastic Michelin-starred restaurant in Monaco, where we went for lunch last autumn. This time around, we decided to go for dinner.

Yoshi is located in Monte-Carlo, not far from the casino, at the rather fancy Metropolitan hotel. It is actually being managed by the famous chef Joel Robouchon. The interior decoration is expectedly understated - with a nice Japanese garden outside at the back of the dining hall.

Everything was, as one could expect, and as it was last time, pretty much perfect. Excellent service, excellent food. We went for an extensive taster menu with 7 courses this time around - and it was all rather excellent. Actually, I do have to admit I was slightly disappointed with the pannacotta dessert - but only slightly. It didn't really take away from our enjoyment. What was particularly cool was watching the chef prepare the sushi/sashimi assortment right in front of us.

So if you want to have some fancy Japanese cuisine on the Cote d'Azur, look no further than Yoshi!

And most importantly: Joyeux anniversaire, mon amour!

U Giru de Natale

I've gone all bonkers this autumn, and started doing loads of sports. Swimming, running, mountain biking, you name it, I've done it (slight exaggeration... ;-) ). So, I was quite keen to take on the legendary Monaco 10 km Christmas run with a few colleagues of mine.

I headed down to Monaco with Philippe. After getting our bibs, we headed of for a quick coffee, as we showed up a bit early for the race (we wanted to be sure not to miss the start!). And then, time for the big race... There were quite a few people from work there, all in all we were about 10, I think.

I started off easy, as I knew the race was a deceptive one. 10 km is quite a short distance, but this is Monaco, which means there are a lot of slopes going up, and going down. The first 3 kilometers were quite easy, as it was relatively flat going, but then, it was time for the first important ascent - the staircase leading up to the Principality palace, "on the rock". Actually, it turned out not to be as difficult as expected, as the narrowness of the staircase leads to a kind of human traffic jam.

From then on, the going was pretty easy, until we got to the 2nd major ascent, the one taking us up from the port to the casino in Monte Carlo. But I'd dosed my strength quite well, so didn't have too much difficulty with that part either. And from then on, it was all downhill, as we ran downhill along the seaside to the goal, back in the port. Finally, I crossed the finishing line with a respectable time of 51 minutes. I even felt I like might've been able to do a bit better if I'd have had a bit more pace in the middle part of the race.

As expected, I wasn't the top runner at my company, that honour went to Olivier, who actually wan a basket of goodies for his efforts!

In the evening, I was quite happy to reward myself with a big meal at the Polygon Riviera (the swanky new shopping centre in Cagnes-sur-Mer), where we met up with Aurelien and Julie for a bit of a pre-Christmas meal. We decided to go to a rather classy-looking affair called Maotsumy, an Asian restaurant. We had a pretty decent, if overpriced meal there. Great to see Julie and Aurelien!

Japanese gastronomy in Monaco

Today is armistice day (to celebrate the end of World War I), and also a public holiday. we spent some time contemplating how to spend the day (as it was on a Wednesday, no way to do a long weekend). After contemplating various options (doing sport, hiking, a day visit somewhere, a museum, a good restaurant), we eventually decided on the meal option (the sky was rather grey, which made the choice rather easy). Most restaurants in France are shut on public holidays, but thankfully, that's not the case for Monaco (as the principality is not a part of France)! After some contemplation we decided upon a restaurant called Yoshi.

We took the train down to Monaco, and walked over to the restaurant. And quite a nice walk it was, walking down to the port of Monaco, then walking up to Monte Carlo along the port, taking in all the impressive yachts. We then passed Hotel de Paris (with the mandatory Ferrari parked up front), and the Casino, and eventually found the Hotel Metropolitan, which is where the restaurant is located (as a side note, the Metropolitan shopping centre was rather impressive too)

Yoshi is, as you may have guessed, a Japanese restaurant. And not just any Japanese restaurant - it's the first Japanese restaurant created by acclaimed chef Joël Robuchon. He's had a strong connection with Japan for quite some time, having founded several French restaurants in Japan. The chef is one
Takéo Yamazaki, who earned his spurs cooking French cuisine in Japan. And now he's cooking Japanese cuisine in France (well, Monaco).

We decided to go for the set menu, with Japanese beer to go with it (we considered sake, and quickly changed our minds after we saw the prices...). So what's the verdict ? Well, the food is certainly sublime, as one would expect from a restaurant having one Michelin Star. The service was spot on and friendly (we even had a chat with the waiter about Hokkaido - he had lived their, and we visited this summer!). So, the best Japanese restaurant we've done in Europe, I would say (some say it's the best in Europe!). That said, the food wasn't up to the same level as some of the Kaiseki meals we've had in Japan. But, let's not get overly picky here - we loved Yoshi! ;-)

After the lovely meal, we wandered back down to the port, and checked out a pretty cool photography exhibition on the works of Steve McCurry (one of the great travel photography in the world).  All in all, a great way to spend 11th of November!

Sushi time @ Monaco

Japan is a passion for both me and Mathilde, so I thought I'd treat Mathilde to a Japanese experience. I ended up booking us both on a sushi workshop at a Japanese shop in Monaco.

Making sushi seems quite simple, but in fact it's everything but. There are plenty of subtleties at every stage - from cooking the rice (you really need the Japanese rice cooker, and you need to wait for the rice to settle at the right temperature before making the sushis), to how the rolling of the sushis is done, to seasoning and down to the cutting (there is, of course, a special knife for this job).

We tried our hand at all sorts of different sushis, from the classic makis, to california rolls to nigiri. I had a go at some nigiris - esthetically they were rather doubtful, but the taste was thankfully there! All in all, not only was it a fantastic learning experience, but a very tasty meal as well.

The next step is to have go at it ourselves, I suppose!

Gaëtan Roussel @ Monaco

I was quite happy to find out Mathilde surprised me with some concert tickets this particular Friday night. A kind of French rocker legend - Gaëtan Roussel  - was playing at Monaco.

Before the concert, we decided to have a stroll around nearby Port de Fontvieille, near the football stadium, to find a nice restaurant. We ended up in Amici Miei, a relatively authentic Italian restaurant. Apart from the Monegasque prices (= expensive, in case you didn't guess...), the place was  rather nice, with tasty enough food and good service.

The concert itself was pretty cool. Gaëtan Roussel was the front man of the rock group Louise Attaque, which had its heyday during the 90's (their debut album is the best-selling Rock album ever in France, and the fifth most sold album ever in France).

The fact that I recognize some of their songs is for sure the ultimate proof for their continuing popularity (Louise Attaque tends to get played during moments of nostalgia at French parties and weddings by people around my age... ;). Gaëtan put up quite an energetic show, mixing up old classics but also stuff from his latest album, which I can even recall hearing on the radio - again the ultimate proof that he still has a following. (put it like this - I am absolutely useless at answering music questions at pub quizzes).

All in all, a fantastic Friday night out in Monaco. Merci ma cherie pour le surprise! ;-)

More Glamour in Cannes and Monaco

The upcoming weekend is truly “glamour galore” on the Cote d'Azur, as the festival of Cannes ends, and the normally sleepy Monaco welcomes the Formula 1 Circus.

Before the glamour, a bit of nature – since our good friend JayJay was visiting, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at some sea Kayaking, seeing as Jay Jay is a bit of a pro at that. We didn't realise our “planned” Marseille-Nice trip yet, rather we decided on a decidedly less ambitious session around Cap d'Ail (which appears to be the only place apart from Antibes on the Riviera where they rent sea kayaks). Turns out the rental place is a very nice coastal walk from the Cap d'Ail train station, nearly in Monaco!

So I had the sudden inspirational idea for the Grand Prix weekend – rent a sea kayak, and watch the race from the port from the kayak! Hmm, not possible, unfortunately, the guy at the rental agency said – no sea kayaks allowed in the port (only big yachts, I suppose...). Well, anyways, we had a very nice sea kayaking session, with a rather scenic view of the coastline, followed by a nice lunch by the beach. We took the train back towards Nice from Monaco, so got a bit of a taster of the Formula 1 biz (or rather, an earful!), since the practice session was on...

We still had some tickets for the Director's Fortnight festival in Cannes, so we decided to use them up on Saturday. Since our dear friend Naim is heading off to Belgium for work, we invited him along, so we could catch up with him before he's off. Due to train hassle, we arrived at Cannes just before the screening was supposed to start – we had very low hopes for getting in. But much to our surprise, we did get in! We saw an Algerian movie called the “Le Repenti”, a rather interesting film about a former Muhajeddin, trying to adjust to civilian life, and finding it rather hard...

After the movie, we had a lunch/dinner at a very nice Lebanese restaurant...

Following the meal, me and Naim made our way over to Monaco, where we were planning to meet up with some friends, including Kartsa, a Finnish mate of mine from my UK years, who works for McLaren. We were about an hour late, thanks to our dear friends at SNCF again, but finally did meet at the classic Monaco GP meetup bar – La Rascasse (yes, it is located in that famous corner, by the race track). Great to meet Kartsa again, it's been a couple of years since we last met! We were also joined by none other than Paddy Lowe; the technical director at McLaren, who actually used to be Naim's boss! He was a very nice guy indeed.

The journey back to Cagnes was rather challenging, as it often is during the Monaco GP weekend. Naturally, SNCF were on partial strike, so the last two trains were cancelled, and the night bus took about 2 hours to get to Nice airport. Since I didn't fancy waiting for an hour for the bus going to Cagnes, I decided to cycle home on the velo bleu... Total journey time – about 4 hours. Oh well, it was great fun anyway ;)

A weekend with Nick

Nick is one of our good friends from our beautiful years in the UK. A ski trip in the South of France had been on the cards for a while, so ‘twas sort of a case of now or never.

My parents had actually got us tickets for a spectacle at Monaco (yes, that would be the 3rd time in Monaco during a week – that is definitely a record for us!) for Friday night, so we made our way straight there, after picking up Nick at the train station (thankfully, he made his connection in Paris, rather than getting lost in the Louvre like last time ;) ). After a quick pizza in Monte Carlo, we made our way to the venue of the night – no less than Le Salle Empire. Le Salle Empire is normally used as a restaurant in the Hotel de Paris (the poshest hotel in Monaco, which is saying something…).

Tonight, the sumptuous hall was the venue for a tambourine quartet concert. It was a nice concert indeed – even if the quartet might’ve looked a bit more at home on the beach than at the Salle Empire… We finished off our bling-bling night with some drinks across the street, at the Café de Paris, with my parents and some other fellow Finns…

The next day, we got up real early, to hit the ski slopes. This being late march, we had to go for Isola 2000, rather than Greolieres-les-Neiges, where we normally do our skiing on the Cote d’Azur. After the 1 ½ hour, very scenic drive, we finally arrived – to a scene of glorious sunshine. After renting our gear, we hit the slopes. We really did have a splendid day – the sun was shining, the snow was good (considering the time of the year, at least!), and what’s best – the ski slopes were relatively empty.

That is the good thing about skiing at Isola compared to Greo – the fact that there are so many more ski lifts, means that one can actually concentrate on skiing, rather than queuing for ski lifts…

Maybe the only disappointment was that we didn’t “go to Italy” – there is actually a ski lift that takes skiers up to the Italian border – unfortunately it was closed today, though… (being on the south-facing slopes, so more exposed to the sun…). All in all, pretty much a perfect way to spend a nice early spring Saturday, then!

For the evening, we took Nick to one of the nice villages near Cagnes – Biot, to one of my favorite restaurants on the Cote d’Azur; Le Pierre a Four. I go there quite often for lunch, and find it good value for money, with good-sized portions and good service. However, I wouldn’t recommend the place for dinner, after the experience we had… Obviously the cheaper menus were not available, and the place was under-staffed. So it turned out to be quite a long meal – for the wrong reasons.

The next day, we decided ‘twas time for a bit of exercise. So, after having done our weekly visit to the local farmer’s market, and after a relaxed lunch, we jumped on the Velo Bleu, and made our way to Nice. Once there, we did the usual things we do in Nice after a bike ride – ie. got an ice cream at Amarino’s in Rue Massena. Yummie. After walking around for a bit, we made our way to the old town for a well-deserved drink. Naim joined us there – turns out he used to live in Luton, like Nick, so they spent a bit of time reminiscing on the “good old times”… We finished off a very pleasant weekend with a movie night – we saw Limits Control by Mr. Jim Jarmush.

Culture @ Monaco

Henna and Aki were kind enough to give me a pretty royal birthday present – tickets to the Princess Grace theatre at Monaco!

Before getting our boost of culture, time for something more important – food. We let Henna, who works in Monaco, do the organization; we ended up in what is apparently a bit of a Monaco institution – le Bistroquet. It’s a nice little eatery serving Italian grub, located just a stone’s throw away from the Casino, in Monte Carlo. We had a nice little meal, and the prices were quite reasonable, considering we were in Monte Carlo. Nice start to the evening!

We then made our way to the theatre. The play for the night was “Victor Hugo, mon amour”. The play traces Hugo’s romance to a lady called Juliette Drouet, through love letters the couple wrote to each other over the decades… All in all, even if the play is somewhat “static”, it was an enjoyable experience – I guess my French is reaching a level where I can begin to appreciate the subtleties of Hugo’s prose ;-).

Big thanks to Henna and Aki for a super birthday pressie!! ;-)

Monaco Run 2012

It’s been a while since my last “professional running competition” (har har), the Nice Sem-Marathon, which I took part in a couple of years back. I had big ambitions for running a marathon after that, but gave up on the project after doing my knees in during practice (yeah, convenient excuse, right?).

Well, some time ago, I decided it was time to get “back into it”. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) we’ll be in sunny California during this year’s Nice semi-marathon, so I decided to run the Monaco 10 kilometer run instead (there was actually also the option of doing a 23 km run from Ventimiglia to Monaco – but I opted against it after thinking about it for about 3 seconds).

So, there I was, 9 AM in the morning in the Port of Monaco, getting ready… It was pretty much perfect running conditions – a cloudy, but not rainy, day. The run took us through the tunnel under “the Rock”, around the football stadium at Fontvieille, back past the port and train station, past Grimaldi forum at the east end of Monaco, and back along the sea to the port. Monaco being a bit hilly, it wasn’t all flat running either, so I was pretty happy with my time of 52 minutes! Only two things annoy me somewhat – I wasn’t able to catch that Swede 1 kilometer before the end – and most of all – it seems I broke my chip, so I have no official time!

But Mathilde can testify to the fact that I did complete the race! And I have the photos to prove it! What’s next then? Apparently there is another 10 km race at Menton in May, perhaps I’ll go for that next?

Charlie Chaplin in Monaco

We don’t normally go to Monaco very often. But due to various reasons, we’ve been there for the last two weekends. And for this weekend we had tickets for a rather special event at Grimaldi forum for Saturday night. They were showing City Lights, a truly classic Charlie Chaplin film; one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen, with the Monaco Philharmonic orchestra providing the soundtrack. Obviously, an event not to be missed.

My parents were back in France together with Tutta, so we got them tickets as well. Due to the schedule, dinner in Monaco before or after the concert-cum-cinema was out of the question, hence we decided to invite the gang over for an aperitif/light dinner to our place. Shopping turned out to be a bit of a challenge, since today was “Victory day” (hence most shops were closed)), but we managed in the end.... A few drinks, and with relatively filled stomachs, we hit the road for Monaco in my parents trusty Scenic.

The event itself was brilliant. The movie really is a true comedy gem, I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard in a movie... And the live music kind of added an extra dimension to the proceedings. Truly a worthwhile event, I hope they do more of those in the future...

Monaco Historic Grand Prix

Monaco is of course first and foremost known for its Formula 1 Grand Prix. I went to the race a couple of years ago; but haven’t gone since, since I think paying 70 euros for sitting on a muddy slope watching cars (from very far away) go by, without having any idea about who’s winning the race is taking the pi** a bit. And I’m not willing to pay in the neighbourhood of 300 euros for a “proper ticket” either.

This year, however, I was seriously considering getting a ticket for the historic grand prix, though, which takes place a couple of weeks before the real grand prix, figuring it might be a reasonably priced, nice day out. But in the end I decided not to go for it… However, Mathilde actually spotted a notice on the web with somebody giving out two free tickets for the grand prix. After quite a few ifs and buts (we weren’t first in the line for the tickets), we eventually got our paws on them! So after a quick detour to La Gaude Sunday morning, we were set to go.

We arrived about 10:30, having just missed the first race (there were seven races in total, with cars from different eras). What followed was a pretty nice day out, actually. I saw five races altogether (Mathilde had enough after four), with Formula 1 cars dating all the way back to the 1930’s, all the way until the early 70’s… it was pretty interesting watching how the cars have evolved over the years. A bit scary watching the guys race in the really old cars, not a lot of protection there for the driver in case of an accident…

All in all, it was quite a pleasant event, with a very different atmosphere from the actual formula 1 race. Here, the audience was a bit of a mixture of families with young kids, old motor sports enthusiasts, and the “odd curious” bystander like me and Mathilde. All pretty laid back… The races themselves were actually quite exciting, with a lot more overtaking than in “real” formula 1! And the races were actually pretty serious, there were even a couple of accidents (one pretty bad-looking one, where one of the victims got pissed off enough to get out of his car and punch the other guy!). Didn’t know any of the race drivers, but there were a few ex-formula 1 drivers, a formula 3 champion and I think a son or nephew of the legendary, late, Jim Clark.

All in all, then, it was a pretty good day out, and a lot lighter on the wallet than the real race ;-).

A very long night in Monaco...

The other big event on the Cote d’Azur other than the Cannes film festival in May is of course the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Since we were in the middle of moving flats, and also because of last year’s less-than overwhelming race experience, I decided to not go and see the actual race this time (it makes much more sense on the telly, anyway…).

But since Kartsa, a mate from the UK who works for MacLaren as a mechanic was naturally in Monaco, I couldn’t very well pass over the opportunity to catch a pint or two. Just take the train there, have a couple of pints, then head back on the last train. Simple, right? Not…

Everything started well, as I took the train to Monaco (well, apart from the 20 minutes delay). As I got out of the train, I quickly realised to my horror that SNCF (the French railroads company) had kindly decided to go on a mini-strike (which meant that the last two trains were cancelled) – excellent timing I must say… Well, no matter, I figured I could take a night bus (I mean last year, I only waited for about 1 hour…). So I wasn’t too worried as I strolled down to meet Kartsa, who was accompanied by another Finn, Petri, who was also in the racing biz. After a couple of not-too-ridiculously overpriced beers sold at a street stand (only about 6 euros for a pint), we headed over to the bar across the street (the name of which I forget), to have the more “normal F1 weekend” priced beers (10 euros each). Here we were joined by Mari (who was visiting the Cote d’Azur for a few days) and Veronique (a friend of Mari’s), and we also bumped into some other MacLaren guys including Spencer the tire wiz.

The atmosphere was great, just as last year. So it like a bit of a pity to leave – but I figured with our move and everything, I better be in bed not too late. So I headed off to the night bus stop just after midnight. And waited. And waited. Then decided to have a F1 weekend-priced cappuccino (5 euros) in the bar next doors. And waited some more. In fact, I waited 3 f***ing hours! Taking a taxi even crossed my mind at some point (although that would’ve cost probably in the region of 150 euros) – but that wasn’t even a possibility (the taxis wouldn’t even take people as far as Nice). Well, at least there were plenty of people in the same situation as me – so the atmosphere was one of resigned solidarity rather than impotent fury.

The bus journey itself can’t be described as a pleasure either – as I had to stand for most of the 1-hour trip. And of course that wasn’t it for me – I still had to change to ANOTHER bloody night bus at the airport – which I had to wait for about an hour for… (this one was “only” half an hour late). Creeping into bed has rarely been such a pleasure as it was tonight – at 5:30 AM…

And the race? Nothing much to write home about, to be honest. It rained, and both of the Finns did poorly. So just as well I didn’t go and see the race.

Museums in Monaco

Today was the Journees de Patrimoine in Monaco (the French equivalent was 2 weekends ago), so we figured we ought to take advantage of this and visit some museums (although we've been to Monaco plenty of times we haven't really done any touristy stuff - unless you count the Monaco GP or the casino, that is...).



Our first visit was to the Prince's palace, on top of the Rocher de Monaco by the old town. So we got our free ticket (which was handed to us at the entrance by one guy, which we then gave to another guy 10 meters later??), and dutifully joined the hordes of visitors. I have to say it was quite disappointing, kind of like a wannabe Versailles. A lot of cheap, fake-looking decoration and furniture. Really, one could have expected a bit more class from Monaco...




After this we headed for the Museum of Oceanography, which proved to be much more interesting. It's divided into 2 parts. The less interesting one, where we didn't spend a lot of time, is like a maritime natural history museum, with fossils and whale skeletons and the like.



The more interesting part is like a big aquarium, with various tanks depicting the marine life of the Med. Really well presented and interesting. Gave me the itch to do some scuba diving again...

Evening in Monaco

After a few days of rest, it was time for some action again. We had invited over a few friends from the UK, and then a few more. And then we invited yet more people from France as well. To summarize, we ended up with 10 people coming over to Nice the same weekend!

The first bunch arrived on Friday lunchtime - Nick, Sinhung, Chie, Geoff, Winston and Weng. Philppe and Aniko arrived by train (from Toulouse) a couple of hours later. Logistically everything proved rather challenging (we had to put half of the people in my parents' flat in Antibes) - but everybody had a great time (I hope :-).



After the general confusion, once everybody had arrived (and we had had a go at Haunted House, a board game Winston had kindly given us), we went to Monaco - which of course is where everybody wants to go :-). So we jumped on the train and headed off. After a walk through the port - dutifully admiring the posh yachts, we walked up to "Le Rocher" (the rock) where the palace and the old town are located. After the obligatory snap shots, we had a surprisingly affordable dinner in the old town (15 euros for a decent 3-course meal - not bad for one of the richest cities in the world - and this was just one block away from the palace).



Then we walked across to Monte Carlo for the obligatory visit to the casino. This time I paid the 10-euro entrance fee and actually went inside. I have to say the main gambling hall is pretty damn impressive. Fortunately, I only had enough cash to have 1 go at the roulette table. Still, 20 euros was a bit steep for the 10-odd minutes I spent in the casino ;-)

Monaco Grand Prix

The other big event of the weekend (apart from the Cannes film festival) was of course the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix. Being a Finn, this was of course an experience I couldn't afford to miss.

We started on Saturday night by taking the train down to Monaco to meet up with Kartsa, who works as a mechanic for McLaren. We met him as well as Phil and Spencer (who also work for McLaren) at the racetrack, and had a few beers. Great atmosphere - quite different from the Monaco we're used to (which is very quiet indeed). Having missed the last train back, we took the night bus to Nice - needed to be on top form for the race :-) Although in the end I had a pretty short night because we had to wait for about an hour for the bus to arrive, during which we enjoyed Grand Prix-weekend priced coffees.

In spite of the nocturnal adventures, I did get up early on Sunday morning, and caught the 9:44 train from Nice Ville to Monaco with Jari and Kalle - my fellow Finnish F1 spectators. After enjoying the pre-race atmosphere for a bit, we made our way to our places - which for the "reasonable price" of 70 euros was a muddy slope under the rocher (where the royal palace is located). OK, so the views are OK. And there's even a screen, which shows you what's going on in the race. Anybody who's been to an F1 race know that after the 1st pit stops, following what's going on in the race without a screen is pretty much impossible (although it was too far away for at least me to see much at all). But I have to say the glamour the Monaco GP is famous for seemed a bit far away ;-) (my bum certainly didn't enjoy the experience).
But in spite of all the hassle (or maybe also because of it?), it was an experience! The noise those cars makes is quite something... OK so we had no idea about how the race went, but that's a minor detail right ;-)

We did figure out that McLaren got a double victory (nice one for Kartsa & co), with Alonso winning before Hamilton. The Finns did pretty badly, although Kimi made it to 8th place, which I suppose is an OK result considering his qualification was a bit of a disaster.

Maybe next year I will do what some people recommended - find a bar in Monaco and watch it there :-)

Wine tasting in Nice and Wappu in Monaco!

My good friend Jocke decided to come over for a visit this weekend, and finally arrived after some eventful voyaging... (a few hours wait in Paris, lost luggage, usual story...).



We started off the day by going wine tasting, to try out some of the local wines. There is actually an AOC (Appellation d'origine contrôlée) in Nice called Bellet (click here for some free advertising :-). It's one of the smallest (if not the smallest) appellations in France (mostly because of the price of land, which as you can imagine is not the cheapest around Nice...). We eventually found a nice little vineyard, and had our authentic French experience (and of course even though the wine tasking was free, we felt obliged to buy 2 bottles for about 30 euros afterwards ;-).





From there we rushed over to Monaco (stopping by in Eze, a nice perched village between Nice and Monaco). After a quick look around town, it was time for the Finnish Wappu celebrations in Stars 'n Bars (a famous sports bars, frequented by such people as Michael Schumacher, Janet Jackson, Jude Law, Britney Spears, just to name a few...) - we were about 15 people altogether. The proceedings were relatively civilised for a Finnish celebrations (although after our "balloon wars", not very adult, one could say...)