spent a few days at Boen Gård, an old farm estate just outside Kristiansand, right on the Tovdalselva river, and I think it might be one of the best openings a trip could have. Gabriele Natali has been in the kitchen since March, together with his partner Lucia Wu as sous-chef, taking over from Tomasz Rochon, and on my very first night I had spaghetti made with local flour, mussels and rye — honestly one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever had in Norway, in a place you’d least expect it. The house pulls you in just as much: rooms full of old paintings nobody bothered to modernize, a garden that feels kept rather than styled, and a tiny white garden house at the edge of the lawn that turns almost unreal in the evening light. Dagfinn Galdal, who’s host and patron here, gives the whole place a calm you feel before you understand why. For me, the perfect first stop on the way to Oslo Less