Your humble blogger was off the 'net for most of last week, as there was no connection in the apartment where I stayed while attending the MIPIM real estate fair in Cannes. The batteries on my iPhones barely coped with the requirements of work in such a hectic environment and I was getting home too late to blog anyway.

This was a good chance, amidst all the business development, to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. My birthday often coincides with MIPIM and my friends and colleagues from Russia made sure the celebration was a good one this year.

As I am on a diet, I am reduced to "food-blogging" a superb millefeuille birthday cake I couldn't actually eat. This is my favourite dessert and the Restaurant de Bacon in Cap d'Antibes (my favourite restaurant in the world) makes one you will find hard to surpass anywhere. Don't worry, Welshcakes. I am not going into competition with you.

I received several marvellous gifts (though my friends' company was the best gift of all). Of note was a magnificent bottle of Armagnac of the same vintage as myself, which will be saved for a special occasion. What a thoughtful gift too! Surrounded as I was by young, glamorous Russians, it was good to know I wasn't the oldest thing at the table.

The pictured car sadly does not belong to me or any of my friends. It just provided a nice moment in the day when I encountered it parked on La Croisette (the main drag in Cannes). Can anyone identify it?

Blogging will be light for the next couple of days as I will be in transit back to Shanghai.