A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 358 (Thursday) I was very lucky with the bus this morning and only had to wait for about ten minutes and I got a seat – hooray! Thomas was late for his class so I enjoyed sitting outside in the sun while I waited for him. We were in the room called Nice today, which is my favourite because it’s upstairs and has a lovely view of the port and swimming pool. Sylvie was next and it was lovely to see her, I haven’t seen her for over a month as she’s been on holiday and because of the Grand Prix. She told me that the hotel made over a million euro in six days last week, it’s quite obscene, isn’t it? After Sylvie I had an hour on my own to try to work out my hours this month as payday is coming up   - hooray! The totting up of my hours is really complicated, so complicated in fact that even Huw can’t get his head around it. Each student has one hour a week private and two hours a week in a group so I have to make note of each session saying whether it’s a private or a group. Th

Day 357 (Wednesday) There was a huge cruise ship in again today so I wasn’t looking forward to the crowds in the old town and on the train station so I left a bit earlier to make sure I got a ticket. I was very happy to see this bougainvillea blossoming on the wall on the way to the station – it’s so great to see this colour everywhere again – not that it wasn’t colourful over the winter – the colours are just a lot brighter now. It was also lovely to see the bright red geraniums outside the petanque club, I really want to get some for the terrace this summer and we really must join the petanque club soon as well. As I walked past Le Phare I was amazed to see that Sean and Andy were already there and it was only 11am. I stopped for a minute to chat and they told me that they had started work at 4.30 this morning and had finished for the day – I think I believe them. The narrow streets of the old town were packed and although I’m pleased for the shop owners it was very anno

Day 356 (Tuesday) Had a bit of a lie in today as I didn’t have to be at the Marriott until 1pm. I had to wait 20 minutes for the bus again and I didn’t get a seat but I secured a leaning spot, which makes it not quite so uncomfortable. If I ever see the bus empty ever again I will take a photo of the leaning spot so that you can see what I mean. I got there early to have enough time to eat my sandwich in the square and I felt quite sad that the gorgeous bottle brush plants are dying off already, they haven’t lasted very long at all. There was a beautiful old ship in Cap d’Ail port that I haven’t seen before. I just don’t understand why people buy the new sleek floating hotels when they can have something like this. Out of my four hours today I sat outside for two of them, which is so much nicer than working indoors. I hadn’t realised that only half of the building is the Marriott; to the left of the tall palm tree is the Marriott and to the right are private apartments