A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 388 (Saturday) We had to walk up to the apartment this morning to make sure that everything was spot on for the American guests who were arriving today. They were landing in Nice at 10.30am and rather naively thought they’d be in Villefranche at around 11am – have they ever landed in an airport before?   We arrived there at 11am ensuring that we had enough time to put everything straight. This is the wonderful swimming pool they can use – so jealous! They eventually arrived at 1pm having got lost a number of times. They seemed nice enough and we showed them around the apartment and gave them some advice about where to visit in the area. From here we walked to Beaulieu and for the first time in as long as I can remember this mansion has been closed up and today there were some windows open – this made me happy as it seems wicked that such a place should be empty. We stopped to eat a sandwich and to admire the view; over the years and during this year I ...

Day 387 (Friday) Had an early start today as I had to be in class in Nice at 9am and luckily I had no problem with the bus today and I arrived early. I ate my breakfast on Avenue Jean Medicine sitting on my usual plant pot near the school. These plant pots used to be filled with gorgeous flowers but since the terrorist attack on the Promenade de anglais they have removed the flowers and filled them with concrete to weigh them down to prevent any traffic from ploughing down the streets, so sad. I had a pleasant two hours with Vincent and Isabel and it was a little sad to say goodbye to Isabel, as this was her last class. It’s very interesting to watch France slowing down now that the season has properly arrived. I knew France stopped working in August but I didn’t realise that July was also a no-work month. Guillaume helped me work out my very complicated pay claim as it’s coming to the end of the month – I can’t believe how quickly June has gone. I met Huw at the Cathedral tra...