Visit from Lyon

I didn’t have much time to rest after my week in England, since we had some visitors from Lyons over for the weekend. Karine is an old friend of Mathilde from Alencon, where she grew up. We paid her, Johan and little Lucas a visit a few months ago in Lyon during our last little road trip. So now it was time to return the favour....

We started off Saturday with a proper solid breakfast, consisting of freshly baked baguette, croissants and a beignet (kind of similar to a Finnish "munkki")... Our stomachs full, we headed out to explore beautiful Cagnes-sur-Mer. Since the weather looked promising, we decided to head for the seaside. Unfortunately, the sky became overcast pretty quickly, so we weren’t really able to enjoy “a day at the beach”. Nonetheless, perhaps feeling the need to impress, I decided to have a "refreshing" swim in the sea (this act of foolishness probably explains the cold I have right now?)... After a coffee at the Neptune, we decided to head back to the warm confines of our house, since the weather started to get yet more menacing, with howling winds and even some raindrops appearing...

For dinner, we pondered various options such as restaurant, ordering pizza. In the end Mathilde kindly baked us a delicious pizza. Which we washed down with some nice wine, finishing off with some of Mathilde’s nan’s delicious eau de vie (always a great success!).

On Sunday, we again pondered various options for lunch.... We decided on the pedestrian promenade by the beach in Saint-Laurent du Var in the end. We don’t go there very often, but it’s a pretty nice place to have a walk, and there are certainly plenty of options for a relaxed Sunday lunch. In the end, we ended up in a pretty nice Provencal restaurant, serving local cuisine for quite a reasonable price. The sun made a bit of a more impressive showing than on the day before, so all in all it was a very pleasant way to end Karine’s and Johan’s visit – and also to celebrate Karine’s birthday (which was today).

Back to Blighty

It was time again for my regular visit to the UK. As usual, I arrived at London Heathrow on Monday morning, ready for a week of hard work (and a beer or two, goes without saying). Much to my delight (and slight surprise), I was greeted by sunshine for a change.

After a hard day of work, I hopped on the train for London Waterloo, for my customary London night out. This time, Chie had booked a Cuban restaurant just next to Waterloo called Cubita. Most of the usual suspects were there; meaning Nick, Chie, Geoff and Sinhung. Rasmus, our colleague from Copenhagen, also came along, as well as a Danish friend of his who lives in London. The Cuban soiree was predictably good fun, with Mojitos, daiquiris and some great food spicing up the proceedings.

After the meal, we naturally headed down to the local pub, where we ended up participating in the pub quiz (it’s been a while since I did one of those...). We split into two teams, and having only one Briton per team (information / general knowledge that does not have a direct bearing on UK events or culture are next to useless in pub quizzes, hence teams made up of foreigners tend to get rather badly humiliated...), did predictably badly... (although in our defence it must be said we didn’t come last!). A train ride later, I was soundly a sleep on an inflatable mattress in Sinhung’s flat).

For Tuesday evening, my boss Steve had pencilled in a team curry & beer night. It was pretty appropriate since we had a big two-days training event for the whole team which ended on Tuesday – so it was kind of a nice conclusion to that. After a few pints in the Oatsheef in Fleet, we headed next doors for a curry (can’t remember the name of the place now...). It was all good fun, meeting new faces and catching up with old colleagues.

The next day, it was time to relocate to London after 2 peaceful nights spent in Fleet (after a productive day at the office, of course!). This time, the plan was to meet up with Ed. The original plan was to meet up where he works in Canary Warf, but due to the train schedules, it proved a bit too ambitious, so we ended up meeting up for dinner near Waterloo instead. After an “aperitif” (= a pint in the UK) at the good ole’ Fire Station (just next door’s to the train station), and some indecisive wandering around, we ended up in a rather classy fish restaurant called Livebait. Not the type of place I normally end up during my trips to the UK, but hey it made for a nice change. Samy, who works in my team, also joined us after a rather long day at the office. No complaints about the food at all, top marks all around – although it was a bit heavy on the wallet, it must be said... Ed then offered to drive me down to his flat in his new car. Having said Ed’s previous cars, I sort of half-jokingly asked if the Maserati parked in the street was his “new toy”, and imagine my surprise when it turned out it actually was! So, I got to experience my first ride in an Italian sports car, then.... Quite a classy little beast, it must be said. Nice flat he’s acquired as well in Peckham; where we discussed life, cinema, politics (a new government had just been formed, after all...) over a couple of glasses of wine - the usual.....

Getting to work from Peckham is a bit of a pain, it must be said (and not easy on the wallet either – the train prices are even more extortionate than they were when I lived there...). Bus to Waterloo, train to Farnborough, and then the shuttle bus to Southwood.... Oh well, at least I had a good book to read. After another day of blood, sweat ‘n tears at the office, it was time to head off to Guildford for the last night out of the week. I was already kind of looking forward to a quiet night out in the Stoke with Phil (him being the only one who was confirmed for going to the pub), until Simo gave me a ring, announcing his readiness for “a pint or two”. So there you go... Good to see Steve as well, it’s been ages.... A pity Simo couldn’t convince Zuzi, his dear lady friend, to come out. Anyways, great to catch up. Looks like both Simo and Steve are (like most people I used to know) on their way out of the UK – Simo to the Czech Republic and Steve to Hungary.... Soon there won’t be anybody in Guildford I can go to the pub with, what’s that all about then?

That pretty much brought an end to this visit to the UK. Well, Sinhung did manage to talk me into a pub lunch with the colleagues on Friday (well it’s not like he needed to twist my arm or anything...) at the Crab & Anchor. Well, the pub lunch was actually missing from the “English things to do every time I cross the channel” list.... I even had a Kangoroo steak, so I even ventured into unknown culinary territory...

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 ;-).

Riviera tour with Jani

Jani is a good mate of mine from Finland; we’ve been through a lot together (Gymnasiet Grankulla Samskola, the Finnish military service and the enlightenment cruise – in that order of difficulty…). People can still vividly remember his last visit when he came to see me in England (I can’t remember a thing – except that there were a lot of beer cans left in the apartment when he left). So I was really looking forward to his visit ;-).

I picked him up at the airport Saturday morning, and chauffeured him back to our flat. After a welcome beer and lunch at our flat, we decided to quickly hit the road and head out on the tourist tour. We started off with the Most Beautiful Old town on the Riviera, Haut-de-Cagnes. I write that with a slightly ironic tone, but seriously speaking, it IS one of the prettiest old towns in the area. The lack of tourists hordes adds to its charm (in their place there are, however, the pensioner hordes). After a leisurely walk around the cobble-stoned streets (and a coffee downtown), we continued on to Nice, the next stop on our grand tour.

We started off with a walk around the old town, which took in all the famous sights including Cours Saleya, the famous Fenocchio gelateria and the Palais Lascaris (an old restaured fancy townhouse, which has the additional distinction of being free to visitors). We ended up at Place Garibaldi, where we decided to have an afternoon drink. Due to the slow service (we started to wonder whether the waiter was drunk or amnesiac, as he seemed to have some difficulty keeping track of our orders…) and the fact that we quite enjoyed our spot in the sun, our "quick drink" carried on for quite some time, until we suddenly realised it was time for dinner!

We ended up in a real Nice institution – Le Café de Turin. It’s one of the most reputable restaurants in Nice for seafood. Not the sort of grub we eat very often, but it made for a nice change. We had big plates of various sea crawlies, half of which I didn’t recognise the name of… All in all, a pretty nice meal, with good wine (Jani grumbled a bit about the slow service again – it’s true that a bit more patience is required in this part of the world than in Finland…). We finished the day with a couple of pints in that ole’ Irish-Nicoise institution known as Ma Nolan’s, where we met up with Ismael as well.

For the next day, the plan was to head to Italy to one of our favourite restaurants, il Giardino, where one is guaranteed to leave with a more than satiated appetite… We decided to take the scenic route there, which meant taking the Moyenne Corniche instead of the motorway. This rather amazing drive (especially in sunny weather, like we had on this particular day) takes in all the sights between Nice and Italy (Cap Ferrat, Monaco, Eze, Cap Martin etc.). A couple of photo-stops later, we arrived in Vallebuona, were a gargantuan lunch was waiting for us. What followed was three hours of unashamed gluttony (I loved every minute of it, needless to say). The culinary marathon consisted of I don’t know how many antipasti, three plates of pasta, three plates of meat, followed by just one desert (!). And plenty of wine to go with it, of course…

Our stomachs bloating, we squeezed into the car, and headed back towards France. Our next stop was Monaco (what else?). We ticked off all the classic sights, first checking in the Casino with the fancy cars. We then headed down to the port (the preparations for the F1 Grand Prix were well under way), where we stopped for a drink at Stars ‘n Bars (the place to be for motor sports fans in Monaco). From there we hiked up to the rocher (which I supposed got rid of a few calories we had acquired in Italy), where the old town and the royal palace is located. There’s not all that much to see or visit there, to be honest, apart from the Oceanographic museum (which is a lot more interesting than the royal palace), so after the obligatory photos of the port which the rocher overlooks, we headed back towards Monte-Carlo, where our car was parked. We did decide to have one last overpriced coffee at the Café de Paris next to the Casino, though, before hitting the road. (5 euros for a cappuccino…).

We were all a bit nackered by the time we got back home, and scrapped the plan to go and have a drink at “Le 7” (the only pub in Cagnes-sur-Mer, as far as I know, and I haven’t been there yet, can you believe it?). Me and Jani ended up watching “Ichi the killer”, by the rather unique (and some would maybe argue, deepy disturbed) director Takasi Miike. This particular film was unique/disturbing than even by Miike’s high standards…. The beer which was consumed considerably improved the viewing experience…

Monday, we got up bright ‘n early, for the last day of Jani’s visit. The plan was to drive down along the coast to St-Tropez. We managed to leave before 9 AM (pretty good going, I reckon), hitting the A8 motorway, getting off at Mandelieu and driving along the coastline at Massif d’Esterel. It really is a great drive, with the ochre-coloured massif silhouetted against the turquoise Mediterranean… We stopped for a scenic coffee break in one of the small towns, Agay (I think). From there we carried on to Port-Grimaud, a well-known little town I’ve wanted to visit for some time.

Port-Grimaud is what one could call a “small, modern-day Venice”. It’s the dream project of an architect called François Spoerry, built in 1964. It’s quite an interesting little place, and certainly one of the most successful “housing projects” from the 60’s. But whether it merits the hordes of tourists who apparently decend on this little port during the summer months, I’m less sure about… After a very nice lunch consisting of fish and white wine, we carried on towards St-Trop’…

Half an hour or so later, we arrived. Unfortunately, by now Jani’s stomach was getting rather upset (not sure whether it was the Italian meal or the beer from yesterday, or the fish...), so our visit ended up being quite short… We did have the time to have another ridiculously expensive cappuccino in the port, buy a couple of tartes tropeziennes for dinner, and have a quick walk around to take in the main sights (not that there’s much to see as such in St-Tropez, pretty though it is…).

That brought an end to Jani’s visit, which turned out to be as enjoyable as last time, and considerably more “civilised”… ;-).

Corsica - suite et fin

For Wednesday, the plan was to head out to what is probably the most famous town in Corsica, Bonifacio, located right on the Southern tip of the Island. The drive down to Bonifacio is pretty stunning, going past Sartene, and taking in some beautiful mountain and coastal scenery. A few photo stops later, we finally arrived.

Actually, we drove past Bonifacio to take in the view of the city from the east. And what a sight for sore eyes Bonifacio is, with its old town precariously perched on the cliff, overlooking the turquoise Mediterranean. I would say that it’s without doubt the most stunningly sited city in France. Having spent a while wandering around the cliffs and enjoying the view, we headed down to explore the town itself.

We started off with a decent enough lunch, considering we had it in one of the tourist trap restaurants on the main drag. Actually, one of the clichés about Corsica I find somewhat unwarranted is that it would be more expensive than mainland France. To me it seems cheaper at least than the Cote d’Azur (maybe not the best reference, though…). Our stomachs filled, we headed off to explore the old town. The town itself perhaps failed to live up to the promise of the stunning first impression one gets when seeing the town from afar, but it’s still well worth a visit. It does somewhat suffer from its popularity – I can only imagine what a nightmare it must be during the summer months… Our brisk walk took in the main sights (Napoleons house, the citadel, the sailor’s cemetery, a couple of nice churches), but I think what impressed us the most were again the stunning views over the coastline and the sheer audaciousness which must’ve been involved in constructing the town.

After our visit, we sped up towards the North, where we had a rendez-vous with Youcef and Warda at Santa Giulia beach (located just south of one of Portovecchio). We spent a pleasant hour or so on the beach, enjoying the sunshine (and in my case, a beer) and chatting away. I felt tempted to jump in the sea for a swim, but alas had not brought my swimming trunks. Eventually, as the sun started to set, we set off back home, very pleased indeed with the day…

The next day, we decided it was finally time for a proper trek. After all, Corsica is supposed to be one of the best places on the planet for that kind of thing (one of the most famous hiking trails in France, the GR20, is located here). We decided upon something a bit less ambitious than the GR20; a walk around the Capu Muru peninsula (the same peninsula where our apartment complex was located, so just down the road).And what a fantastic day of hiking we had. The weather was perfect; the sky was blue, and there was a light breeze to keep us refreshed. The hike initially took us to one of the famous Genovan watchtowers which dot the Corsican coastline (they formed a kind of signalling system in the olden days, to warn about approaching invaders).

After taking in the beautiful views from there, we carried on to the tip of Capu Muru, taking in some more stunning coastal scenery on the way… After a quick visit to the chapel we found there, we made the trek back to our starting point. All in all, a very pleasant way to spend 6 hours. I washed off the sweat with a dip in the sea at our local beach – VERY refreshing (= cold). Mathilde took the wise choice, I think, and read a book on the beach. We finished off the day watching the sunset from our balcony, drinking some Corsican wine, and with a nice dinner…

We got up on Friday, full of energy. Our week in Corsica was nearing its end, as we were taking the ferry back to Nice the next day. So wanting to waste no time, we checked out, and hit the road. For our last day, we wanted to acquaint ourselves with the Corsican mountains a bit. The mountains are where Corsicans have traditionally lived, to protect themselves from foreign invaders, I suppose.

Our drive initially took us to Sainte-Lucie-de-Tallano, yet another pretty Corsican mountain village, famous for its olive oil. After getting a sandwich done, we carried on to one of the main sights in this part of Corsica; Cuccuruzzu. It’s actually a rather large archeological site, with the castle for which Cuccuruzzu is famous for dating back to the Bronze Age. The site is actually setup as a two hour hike with audio guide, so it makes for a nice combination of outdoors activity and history lesson. It was all good fun, even if the audio guide did take the Corsican clichés a bit far; with the omni-present Corsican chant, and thick Corsican accents (or so Mathilde told me, obviously being a bit more familiar with Corsican clichés than me ;-).

A couple of pretty mountain villages later, we reached the other top sight in the region; the Col de Bavella, from where there are some nice views towards the Aiguilles (= needles) de Bavella. It was a great scenic spot, just a pity about the clouds blocking the view. (having said that, they also created a bit of an atmosphere…).

By then, we were thirsting for a drink, so decided to follow the advice of our trusty Guide de Routard, which recommended having a drink or two at the Hotel de la Poste in Aullène. We rather quickly found the hotel, only to find the place closed, much to our disappointment. As were all the other bars in town, unfortunately. However, on our way back to our car, a crafty-looking old geezer stopped us, starting to ask us strange questions (like where we were from, how we liked his village etc.). Turned out quickly that the chap was none other than the owner of the Hotel de la Poste, and that he was more than happy for us to have a drink on his terrace. Clearly glad to have some company, he then proceeded to tell us his life’s story (including how he had walked the GR20 in 5 days – a feat that normally takes more like 15 days, I might add) and that of his old hotel (an old coaching inn, the oldest one in Corsica, apparently). Most of this was translated to me by Mathilde, by the way, since I only understood about one word in three, so thick was his accent. He also enthusiastically showed us his self-authored local tourist guide – “the most accurate guide there is”, apparently. All in all, a truly authentic Corsican experience, then, to end our trip ;-). He even gave us a bottle of Rose as a souvenir (and naturally refused payments for our drinks). A heart-warming encounter, one could say. Should you ever find yourself in Corsica, I can honestly recommend a visit!

An hour’s drive later, we were back in the town of our arrival, Ajaccio, at the same hotel. We finished the evening, and Corsican holiday, with a great dinner in a nice restaurant in the old town.

So, how to sum up Corsica, then? As you may have guessed, we really loved the place. It’s certainly one of the prettiest places in Europe, and as of yet, relatively undeveloped. It also has an undeniably Corsican character (just look at all the traffic signs with the French names crossed over), to me it had a different feel to mainland Europe. We didn’t find it expensive either, nor unfriendly (especially in light of our encounter in Aullène). So, I can definitely recommend a visit – just don’t go in the summer. I can only imagine the traffic jams and crowds…

Discovering Corsica

We’ve spent over three years on the Cote d’Azur now, and have managed to see quite lot of this very beautiful part of the world. One place we’ve not had the opportunity to visit yet, though, is Corsica. Corsica has a reputation of being a very beautiful place indeed (the French like to call l it “L'Île de Beauté”). Some people also have less positive things to say about Corsica – some members of the nationalist movement give the island a bit of a bad name with their bombings etc. Some even say that Corsicans, on the whole, are not the friendliest lot around… So, for this year’s eastern holidays, we decided it was time for us to find out for ourselves whether the clichés hold true…

After a rather hectic morning of packing and cleaning up the house, we embarked on our journey on a very sunny Saturday afternoon, taking the ferry from Nice to Ajaccio (the capital of Corsica). The sea voyager was a rather pleasant one, since the weather really looked promising. We arrived very late, so didn’t really have time to explore Ajaccio that evening. We spent Sunday morning exploring the place, starting with the Napoleon monument, which was just a couple of blocks away from our hotel. Napoleon is, I suppose, the most famous Corsican around (I suppose some fanatical Tino Rossi fans might disagree…); and he was born in Ajaccio. We then headed down to the town centre for a quick walk around. Turns out there isn’t that much to see in Ajaccio, actually. The old town is pleasant enough, but just covers a few blocks. An there is, of course, the imposing citadel, guarding the port of Ajaccio. After a visit to the local market in the port, where we stocked up on supplies for our trip, we headed out into the Ajaccian hinterland, into the Gravona valley.

Not far away from Ajaccio, we were met by some very pretty scenery indeed. We quickly noticed that the landscapes are quite different from those found on the Cote d’Azur. The hills just look a lot greener here. The fact that Corsica has (at least up until now) largely been spared of the property development boom which has given a rather ugly concrete façade to parts of the Riviera, also helps… We started off by visiting what is apparently a typical Corsican village, Bocognano. The villages struck as quite different from the Provencal ones we’re used to. The Corsican ones are kind of “less cute”, and can appear a bit run down. But they also seem like “real places”, with a lot of character and local colour. After a quick picnic lunch, we headed off to another charming little village called Vero. After a nice hike in the pretty surrounding hills, we decided to leave the Gravona valley and find our lodgings for the rest of our stay. After a very scenic drive along the Corsican coastline, we finally arrived in Serra di Ferro, where we checked into the apartment we’d rented for the week.

We started Monday by another excursion into the Corsican interior, doing a mini-road trip which took in a couple of more pretty Corsican villages – with the highlight being Olmeto. From there, we drove down to Sartène, which is known as the “most Corsican of Corsican towns”. Its history is filled with stories of vendetta (another well-documented “phenomenon” Corsica is famous for), and traditions hold firm here, apparently… It’s certainly quite an atmospheric place, with a sort of dour medieval feel to it (again, less flowery and pretty than some of the Provencal towns we’ve visited). We decided it would be the perfect place to try some traditional Corsican cuisine. We ended up in a place that was no doubt touristy, but still managed to feel somehow authentic (including the less-than enthusiastic service…). I had Corsican charcuterie as a starter, and wild boar with mashed potatoes as a main course, washed down with some nice local red wine. The cuisine can’t get much more Corsican than that ;-). After the filling meal, we joined Youcef and Warda, friends from the mainland who happened to be in Corsica at the same time, for a coffee on the main square. After a walk around Sartène with them, we headed together down to Propriano. Propriano is one of the more touristy places in Corsica (let’s not forget about that aspect of Corsica, it does get overrun by tourists during the summer…), without much cultural interest. But the port is nice enough for a stroll around, and the crepes we had weren’t bad either ;-).

On Tuesday, we decided to stay local, since the area surrounding our little village is very pretty as well. We started the day with a brisk walk down to the local “resort”, Porto Pollo. I put quotation marks, since Porto Pollo is a pretty sleepy place for a tourist resort – and all the better for it. After a stroll across the nearly deserted beach, we found ourselves in the port, where we decided to have lunch. The place we chose wasn’t the cheapest in town, no doubt, but the freshly caught fish they served was absolutely delicious, and the desert wasn’t bad either… And the white wine we had was a real delight as well, just perfect for the sunny weather we were blessed with. After the rather long lunch, we carried on walking along the stunning coastline, until we found a nice little private beach, where we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon, just relaxing. As you may have guessed, we were seriously falling for the beauty of Corsica…