A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 419 (Tuesday) Eleven days to go before we go home! Got up at 8.30 feeling quite tired and after a few coffees we packed up and headed to the shops. The big shopping centre was open so got our bits and pieces from Poundland – I really miss Poundland and shops like it, we have 2€ shops in France but they are nowhere near as good as the British ones. We got a naughty breakfast from Greg’s bakery, Huw had a sausage in a roll and I had a steak bake. We were a bit early for the train and it was delayed so there was some hanging around outside Stratford station, which isn’t the nicest place in London. The train journey was pretty painless and Pat and Amanda were at the station to pick us up. The drive from the station was lovely and it was nice to see the hundreds of bales of hay in the fields.   We went straight to New Buckenham where we met Nick, Amanda’s husband in a pub to have some lunch, which was lovely. New Buckenham is a lovely little village so after lunch we went for a ...

Day 418 (Monday) Last night we had the first red moon of the summer and it was stunning. What a day! We had a very early start and had to drop the keys of our home at the estate agent and I have to admit I shed a few tears when we shut the door. I know it’s only 12 days but it’s the imposition of the whole thing that gets to me. It was extremely hot this morning so we were rather frazzled and sweaty by the time we got to the train station. We got to the airport early so there was quite a lot of hanging around. Nice is extending the tramline to the airport and it was exciting to see that they are planting flowers next to the tramlines so it must be arriving soon. Our flight was slightly delayed – good old Easyjet and the queue for passport control was incredible. As we were boarding an Englishman managed to push in front of me (that would never happen on a French bus stop) and when I handed in my boarding card the lady told me that I had to put my case in the hold for free! F...