A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 572 (Monday) New Year’s Eve and it was 24 degrees in the sun this morning – pure bliss. We had an interview this morning with the owners of a three-bedroom villa who may want us to manage it for them. He is American and she is French and they live in Paris when they are not in Villefranche. They have people looking after the villa already but they may want to use us as back up. Last summer I randomly sent emails to property owners in Villefranche offering my service as a property manager and this man got back to me last month. They were very nice people and the villa was gorgeous; very traditional with antique furniture and lovely high ceilings and a small private swimming pool. They told us it was their second home and kept referring to it as a small house, it has three floors, two very big terraces, an orange tree, a lemon tree and a grapefruit tree and this is a small house! They pick grapefruits for breakfast every morning.    I’m not sure if anything will com...

Day 571 (Sunday) Yet another gloriously sunny day – 22 degrees in the sun so we decided to go for a long walk along the beach so we caught a train to Golfe Juan, somewhere we haven’t been yet. At Villefranche station we were delighted to see so many people of the beach and some were even in the sea. The sky was a truly amazing colour this morning…again The little town (well, one road actually) of Golfe Juan was very pretty and the port was very impressive… …but there were a number of really ugly boats. At the end of the port we arrived at a beach, which was beautiful with golden sand, it looked like a summer’s day.   We saw this very Arabic looking house on the seafront Along the beach between Golfe Juan and Juan Les Pins there are four jetty-type structures, I have no idea what they are for but the views from end are gorgeous. The colour of the sea was quite simply wonderful And there were a few people swimming ...

Day 570 (Saturday) It was another warm and sunny day and we had lunch on the terrace wearing T-shirts and Huw even wore shorts! It cools down significantly when the sun goes behind the mountain but the days are gorgeous. I found another interesting article in The Local.fr… The 'most dangerous' animals you can find in France While it's nowhere near Australia in terms of dangerous wildlife, France is still home to a number of animals and insects that you should give a wide berth to, if you can. Although France is better known for its sheep, rabbits and cute little mutts owned by Parisians, it's still home to a number of animals, insects or sea creatures that you wouldn't want to get in a tangle with. Here are some of the most dangerous found in France.  Bears  When bears were reintroduced to the Pyrénées Mountains a few years ago, local farmers went wild. Although they didn't so much fear being attacked themselves, they w...