CHANGE OF SCENE

I have dislocated for some weeks in my native country, Finland. I have been so busy organising family affairs and receiving a dear visitor from France that I haven’t had time to think about writing for a while.

We had a lovely time, visiting Helsinki, made a trip to the sea and even took a ship as far as the capital of our neighbouring country, Estonia. Tallinn is a smaller and more compact town than Helsinki but has a lovely, medieval flavour that the empire-style Helsinki lacks. Helsinki is of course much younger than Tallinn which history goes back to the 13th century.

It's old town makes a nice day trip, a two-hour cruise to Tallinn, walking the cobble stoned streets the afternoon, pausing in restaurants and cafes and shopping for antiques, artefacts and handycrafts still cheeper than in Helsinki. You cover nicely the old town in an afternoon and leave exhausted for Helsinki the same evening.

Some Soviet touches still remain: this is a travel agency's special tour bus.

Still, I do love my native city. Especially when, as last week, the weather is sunny and no bitter winds cool your blood. The city is full of parks and woods and surrounded by the sea. And it's nice to rediscover one's own home town with visitors, seeing the city through other eyes and discovering things one doesn't see anymore because too used to them. Spending summers in Helsinki would be all right by me. But come autumn I am in a hurry to get back to my sunny Provence: I really have a sort of love-hate realtionship with Finland.

Greetings from Finland.
Bons baisers de Finlande.