Visitors from Angers

It’s been a while since Joel and Francoise have been able to visit us, so it’s great that they could finally make it to the Cote d’Azur to enjoy a bit of southern sunshine. I and Mathilde had been doing a fair bit of scouting to check for suitable hotels for Joel. After checking out a few options, we ended up with a nice, modern hotel on the seaside, not far from the Cros de Cagnes (where I do my weekly sailing sessions on Saturdays). For us it ticked all the boxes, apart from the missing sea view. Herquise also came along for the visit, and spent the week at our flat.

After a calm Sunday spent checking out Cagnes, we decided to head out to Cannes on Monday. It was a day off for me, so I was also able to join; as where my parents, who were also keen to meet up with Joel and Francoise. We had a bit of a lie-in on in the morning, so only made it into Cannes for lunchtime. We met up with parents in the old port of Cannes, and headed straight to a snack bar to stock up on supplies for our improvised picnic lunch. A few sandwiches and Finnish Easter eggs later, we headed out to explore Cannes. We started at the Palais de Festivales (where else?), and had a look at the famous film star handprints, and then made our way to the Croisette.

The Croisette needs no introduction, of course. It’s the 2km avenue, covering the Cannes seaside, known for the flashy hotels (like the Carlton) and glitzy shops (there’s even a Vertu shop there…). And it was surely a perfect day for a walk on the Croisette –we were blessed with a blue sky and glorious sunshine on this particular occasion. Good fun checking out the “Riviera couples” (normally the male is old, rich and wears dark shades. The female is young, blonde (fake, naturally) and pretty. Without gong into clichés of course!) who had made an appearance in impressive numbers (build-up for the Cannes film festival, I suppose, which is in a few weeks). We even treated ourselves to the first ice cream of the season ;-). A great and relaxing way to spend a nice spring afternoon!

I was, unfortunately, working for the rest of the week. But I was able to join the others for the odd afternoon coffee / lunch. That’s what’s great about living in this part of the world, the possibility to have a nice coffee by the seaside after getting out of the office, a real luxury… In the evenings we had good fun with Herquise as well in our flat, mostly playing “Buzz’s pop quiz” on my PS2. I and Herquise didn’t have much of a say against Mathilde’s encyclopaedic music knowledge, so ‘twas a bit of a humiliation for us (personally, I definately prefer the movie quiz... ;-) ). I also had great fun “helping Herquise out” with her PSP game (just an excuse to have a go myself, of course!)




On Wednesday evening my parents had kindly invited us over for dinner to their swishy flat in Antibes. After a typically festive aperitif (champagne, what else?), we dug into the food. My dad had made us some absolutely delicious filet mignon. The meat quite simply melted in my mouth (I even felt oblidged to have some broccoli, which was of course present as a side dish, as always… Not my favourite veg…). And to finish off, a raspberry cake. So we went home with our appetites well sated.

As a grand finale for the week, we met up at Joel’s and Francoise’s hotel on Friday. We first had a somewhat disappointing “aperitif” (for my part, I had what’s probably the worst, but certainly not the cheapest milkshake ever…) at the hotel bar. The Aéva is a good hotel, and we quite enjoy having a coffee on their roof-top balcony, but the outdoors bar was a bit of a disappointment. For dinner, we had a couple (well, 4 or 5 in the end, I think…) of very tasty pizzas from a nearby take-away restaurant.

All in all, we had a really great week. I hope Francoise and Joel can make it again, soon!

Visit from Luxembourg

Jani and Tepe are old friends from my student days at Arcada Polytechnic . Since the good old student days, they have set up house together in Luxembourg, of all places. We had the pleasure of paying them a visit last year, during our “Great European Road Trip”, and meeting their new family members.

This week, they were returning the favor by paying us a visit, during their one-week stay at Saint-Raphael (less than an hour’s drive in the neighboring Var department). Due to our somewhat busy schedules, the best slot for a visit turned out to be Sunday, when they came over for a brunch. It turned out to be quite a hectic brunch, actually, as the young family members (especially big brother Niko) were just as energetic as last time… It was also Anna and Julia’s birthday (who are, as you may have guessed, twins…), so good timing for a bit of a celebration ;-)

All in all, a very pleasant (if somewhat tiring) way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

A taste of Morocco

I’ve always been a big fan of North African cuisine; especially Moroccan and Tunisian (we went to Tunisia for a week’s holiday last year and were absolutely delighted with the cuisine). So we were very happy to accept Ismael’s invitation to come over to his and Sarah’s place for an authentic Moroccan meal.

They live in a very nice flat, in what could possible be one of the best possible spots in Nice, overlooking Place Magenta and the pedestrian Rue Massena (certainly one can’t really be more central – except for maybe where Mikko and Sami used to live, on Place Massena).

Once the other guests arrived (Youcef and his girlfriend), the festivities started off with a very entertaining aperitif indeed – the highlight was surely the videos from Ismael’s and Sarah’s trip to Chamonix (very impressive jumps from Ismael – he is a braver man then me, that’s for sure!).

The meal that followed was, as expected, a real treat. It’s true what they say; home-made traditional food is always the best. And this was the first time I had proper homemade Moroccan cuisine, I reckon (at least I don’t count the tagines I’ve attempted as “proper”… ;-). After a very tasty starter of Moroccan pancakes/bread with a veggie filling to go with it, we dug into the main course – called “Mad Moroccan lamb”. It’s a traditional Moroccan recipe with a “Jamie Oliver twist”. I think the name of the dish is pretty descriptive – it’s basically a case of “throw a lamb and a whole bunch of spices, fruits and vegetables into a dish, and put it in the over for a few hours”. I suppose it’s a bit more complicated that that – but the main thing is that it’s delicious. To finish off the feast, we were treated to some equally tasty home-made Moroccan pastries made by Youcef (I REALLY had to force myself to find some space in my over-filled stomach…).

By then it was time to make our way back to the train station (no mean feat, considering the amount of food I’d devoured), to catch the last train. All in all then, an excellent way to spend a Saturday night – great food and great company!

Dinner with the folks

My parents have spent a bit less of the winter months on the Cote d’Azur this year than usually. I guess they chose a good year for it, since the weather hasn’t exactly been brilliant this winter – and on the other hand, southern Finland has for once been blessed by a proper winter.

But, finally, they were able to make it here, if only for three weeks, for starters. So we were graciously invited to their flat in Antibes for a combined “back to the Riviera”/delayed birthday celebration (in my honour). We were treated to a typically delicious dinner; this time lamb chops with broccoli (it’s one of the few things I don’t actually like eating – I guess my mum is still trying to “educate me”) and other veg. Accompanied by a classy Piedmontese red wine, and followed by an impressive chocolate cake. So no complaints in the culinary department ;-)

Otherwise, it sounds like my old folks are getting back into the rhythm of life on the Riviera, having already had their weekly petanque session (followed by a rather long lunch…), and with the 10-years anniversary dinner of the Finnish association and a ballet in Monaco to follow this week still… They’ve got a busier social life than us, that’s for sure!

I was rather happy with the two bags of birthday pressies, as well, especially by the latest book from Kjell Westö (one of my favourite Finnish authors…).

Greolieres encore une fois...

Our good friends Ollie and Raphaelle were visiting the Cote d’Azur this weekend. As always, they were staying at Ollie’s parents place in “the most beautiful village in France”, Greolieres. The plan was obviously to meet up. As we usually do when Ollie and Rapha are over, we were planning to do a night out in Greo, followed by a day of skiing. This time, however, the weather forecast for the weekend looked rather grim, so we were already preparing alternative plans. But thankfully, during Friday afternoon, the weather forecast drastically improved for Saturday, so we decided to stick to the original plan, so up we drove along Le Loup towards the mountains on Friday evening.

Things kicked off with an aperitif at Ollie’s parents’ impressive house. His globetrotting parents were there as well (at the moment they live in China), as well as Marc (a friend of Ollie’s, a real local stalwart, whom I met during my last visit to Greolieres). After a couple of glasses of bubbly, we headed down to the best restaurant in Greolieres (not to mention the only one…). The welcome and food was great, as always. You really get a sense of community at this place; pretty much everybody seems to know each other. Except for the large party of hang-gliding Swedes at the table next to us, they kind of stood out from the crowd. As you may or (more likely) may not know, Greolieres is apparently one of the best places in Europe for hang-gliding. The location of the village, I suppose, sat in the imposing Gorges de Loup, helps…

After a very tasty and entertaining meal (which we finished with some grappa and eau de vie, of course!), the lads decided to head on to the local put “Le Relais”, for a couple of drinks more. Hmm, quite a few, as it turned out. The bar was frequented by a rather strange mixture of folks that night; in addition to our party there were a few of the hang-gliding Swedes, a few local stalwarts (at least one of who by the looks of things spends quite a lot of time at Le Relais), as well as an American who splits his time between Greolieres and Basingstoke (of all places – that’s just down the road from where I used to work in the UK!). It was a blast; I ended up finishing the night with the Swedes, and learning much about hang-gliding no doubt (it was all wiped out of memory by the next morning)…

In spite of feeling somewhat worse for wear, I amazingly managed to get out of bed at a reasonably early hour, and we managed to hit the ski slopes more or less on schedule. The weather was great for skiing, with sunshine and a blue sky, but it does have to be said the ski slopes were in worse shape than last time me and Mathilde came (two weekends ago). It was all a bit icy and slippery. But what was great was the fact that hardly anybody was there, so we pretty much had the slopes to ourselves. And the slopes got a bit softer and easier later on during the day… After a “light” lunch (tartiflette & beer), we carried on in the afternoon – but were somewhat less motivated due to the blistering wind that made even staying upright a downright challenge. So we decided to call it a day relatively early. After a coffee at Marc’s place (who lives in Greolieres-les-Neiges), we said our tearful goodbyes, and hit the road.

Teemu's (and Paddy's) big day

That time of the year again, when I have the privildge to feel yet one year older… Birthdays used to be so much fun; less so these days…. Oh well, at least I get to share mine with Saint-Patrick ;-).

The original plan was to have a get-together with some friends in Nice, on the big day itself (17th of March). But alas, ‘twas not to be, due to cancellations and unforeseen circuimstances. So we ended up having a cozy and romatntic dinner, just myself and Mathilde. Which in the end was pretty much the perfect way to celebrate it, of course;-) (especially since the meal Mathilde cooked for me was a true delight; a bit of Maigret de Canard followed by a delicious lemon cake). And no hangover to worry about in the office on the day after, either… ;-)

We did decide to meet up with the "Riviera Finns" on Friday, though. Things kicked off with Pete picking us up with his Volvo convertible, and driving us down to Cours Saleya. We immediately went to pay our respects to mr. Paddy, by having a Guinness in Ma Nolan’s for an aperitif.

The proceedings then continued in a true Nice old town institution, Le Bistrot du Vieux Nice, where we were joined by Mikko and Marianne. We spent a typically pleaseant evening with the gregarious Finns (not an expression often used when talking about Finns…). Pete entertained us with stories from their 3-week visit to Singapore and South-East Asia; and we then got chatting about the others’ plan for two weeks of hockey (Mikko and Pete?) / shopping (Marianne and Anne?) in California… All in all, a very nice evening then!

Sailing, dining, Wii-ing and skiing...

It’s not been a particularly sunny winter on the Cote d’Azur so far… But this weekend, the sun was back with a vengeance! Which boded very well for my sailing session – the second one for 2010. Quite a few members of our group were apparently still in ski-mode, so there were only three of us to brave the might winds of the med. Wishful thinking, that… Unfortunately the winds were nowhere to be seen today, so it was a rather tame sailing session this time. But with the sun shining the way it did, who can complain? And I got to sail solo, which is always a good learning experience.

For the evening, we’d been invited for dinner at Mikko’s at Marianne’s place in Saint-André-de-la-Roche, overlooking beautiful Nice. It was good to catch up with them again, it’s been a few weeks since the last time. After a nice aperitif, we devoured the delicious veal piccata Marianne had prepared for us… Me and Mathilde contributed with the dessert – a Carambar cake (Carambar are French Caramel candy bars, who in addition to being very tasty are also well known for the bad jokes printed on the wrapping paper. Believe me, they really are very bad…).

After this not very light dinner, we decided it was time for a bit of sport – so Mikko and Marianne took out the Nintendo Wii. Believe it or not, but me and Mathilde had actually not played on the Wii before, so it was all a bit of a discovery for us! What followed was a very energetic session of Rayman Raving Rabbids. Not sure what the highlight was – for me it was Mikko and Marianne dancing to “Wake me up before you go-go” by Wham. But apparently my and Mikko’s dance number was even more fun… A good way to get rid of those extra calories; I ought to get myself one of those…!

The weather forecast for Sunday promised more sunshine, so we decided to make the best of it and head to Greolieres for a bit of skiing. We managed to get ourselves out of bed at 7:30 as planned, which meant we were ready to hit the slopes just after 9. We had a beautiful session, enjoying the sun-bather ski slopes. The snow was good, if a bit hard for my taste (but not icy). And since we were there early enough, there weren’t even that many people on the slopes. So we enjoyed ourselves to the utmost, before having an early lunch (hoping to still be able to hit the slopes before the arrival of the afternoon crowds…). The slopes got pretty busy in the afternoon, but we still made the best of it. We finished by about 3 o’clock, very happy with a full day of skiing, in perfect conditions! What a great way to end a weekend…