A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 327 (Monday) I was so very tired this morning after such a hectic weekend but it was back to normality. I got an email from Julia asking to get the three bedroom apartment ready for some friends of hers arriving on Friday. I asked Beth to help me and she said she will let me know. I hope she can because I really don’t want to do it on my own. It’s strange to think that James, Sue and Kay are still in Villefranche somewhere. Huw gave me a lift to work; it was bliss not to have to catch the bus. I emailed Guillaume to ask if I can take the bank holiday off tomorrow and he agreed, yay! Laurence was first and it all went smoothly but then it got confusing. I had a message to say that Somane can’t come and Emanuel is sick. Somane was meant to be with me for two hours so that means I have to hang around for two hours. I asked reception to call Pascal and he agreed to come 3-5, I still had to hang around for 45 minutes but at least I didn’t have to work till six. I got a text fro...

Day 326 (Sunday) Got a bit of a lie in this morning and then prepared for the picnic, it was a gorgeous day, ideal for a picnic. We were going to take the gang to La Darse and to show them our secret beach but they were a bit late because we’d arranged to meet Pat and Dee in Le Phare. They really enjoyed the walk on the seafront next to the Citadel and it was great to see that the square is almost ready for next weekend’s big opening ceremony. We had a beer sitting outside Le Phare and had a quick chat with Andy who we haven’t seen for two whole weeks. Aussie John was also coming to the beach so we were seven in all. On the way I saw this huge pot of fishing nets, I don’t know why but fishing nets fascinate me.   During the winter, as you know, we had some storms and the sand was pushed up against the wall. Some time recently they had bulldozed most of the beach so that the beach was flat again. It was lovely to see it in all its glory again and they have left a nice mound ...

Day 325 (Saturday) Got up earlier than usual for a weekend because today is the big sightseeing tour. James and the ladies came to ours for a coffee at 10am and then we set off. The plan was to go to Saint Paul de Vence as Sue’s sister highly recommended it to her so I was delighted because it’s one of my favourite places in the world. Then we were going to go up to the Grande Corniche to admire the magnificent views and then go down to Monaco to see the ridiculous Casino Square. There was some pretty heavy traffic in Nice but after that it was plain sailing. Huw drives like a local and the visitors were very impressed. We had some difficulty finding a parking space and finally parked in an underground multi-storey car park. The first port of call was to the washhouse; we must have walked past this a hundred times but didn’t realise what it was. It’s great to think that the local women used to gather at these buildings every week to do their laundry and catch up on all the gossip....