Day 629 (Wednesday) 27^th February 2019

It was yet another gorgeous day, perfect blue sky and really warm, my day started in Beaulieu with Celine – not a bad classroom eh?

All of the students I have worked with here say that they hated doing English when they were in school because the teachers were French, there was no talking and they just had to learn the irregular verbs off by heart. I can see why they would hate this but something worked because every student I have worked with so far can chant the irregular verbs ‘be, was/were, been - write, wrote, written – begin, began, begun – bite, bit, bitten.’

I walked to Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat and Beaulieu beach looked marvellous

There were quite a few people sunbathing and a few swimming

  

Last week this beach was covered in seaweed but now this has been tidied up into a neat pile.

I have no idea what they are doing here but the machines look very interesting

In the old days most of the money in Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat was British but these days it’s all Russian or countries from the former USSR. When I got home I Googled it and found this…

A new generation of oligarchs has landed on the Riviera. More discreet than their elders, they still like to party but also seek to make juicy business. Diving in a very secret universe.

No more extravagances? The fireworks, the birthday parties, the terraces of the sumptuous villas of Cap d'Antibes and Cap Ferrat? The nightclubs to lock bottles of Cristal Roederer and Dom Pérignon rosé? The Rolls and Bentley stables? 

All those - hotels, restaurants, real estate agents, elected officials - who rub shoulders with the Russians of the Riviera swear hand on heart: the newcomers are quiet and discreet. Nothing to do with their predecessors, these rowdy and high-flying oligarchs, landed in the late 1990s, with offshore accounts filled with cash in search of safe investments.  

"Their greatest pleasure is to walk children in strollers, along the shady streets of pine trees and mimosas of Cape Ferrat, without fear of kidnapping or robbery," says Mathias Debois-Frogé, director of the real estate agency John Taylor in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, specialised in luxury real estate. "First-timers paid the bill in the restaurant with bundles of bills, and today they are taking out an American Express Platinum card," said Olivier Bettati, deputy mayor (UMP) of Nice. 

Russians, Kazakhs, Ukrainians, Chechens ...

In May 2002, in an article entitled "Invasion of the new tsars", L'Express had released the names of the first Russian buyers elegant villas built by the sea by the British in the early XX ^th century. Since the arrival of Boris Berezovski, Serguei Pugachev or Arcadi Gaydamak, the enthusiasm has not abated.  

The financial crisis of 2008 has by no means cooled the real estate enthusiasm of "novaritch", as Jean-Jacques Depaulis called it in his book Novaritchs, the new princes of the Coast (Ed. Moment, 2009). "In 2000, when a villa was selling 20 million euros, it was wide-eyed, says Mathias Debois-Frogé. The same today reaches 100 million euros and we are not surprised even more.  

Kazakhs, Ukrainians and Chechens have followed the Russians. For the rich newcomers of the former Soviet republics, full of oil and gas, owning a villa at Cap Ferrat, Cap d'Antibes or Cap Martin - the three sites with the most breathtaking views on the coast - marks the climax of success. "Half of the villas of Cap Ferrat belong to citizens of the former USSR", confirmed to the Express René Vestri, senator mayor of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, a few days before his death.  

Only a few old European families (Thyssen, Marnier-Lapostolle, Ferrero, Mondadori) still resist the miraculous purchase offers. 500 million euros would have been offered to the owner of Fiorentina, one of the most elegant villas of Cap Ferrat! 

I spent half an hour doing a fluency activity with Florence and then an hour with her daughter Claree. The word for sunflower came up and I was delighted to hear that the French word is tournesol, which means ‘turning with the sun.’

The bus to Nice was a bit late leaving because the driver needed to have a wee! I had to be in school in Nice at 5pm and it didn’t enter my head that it could take more than 50 minutes to go 11 kms. There was a carnival parade in Nice this afternoon and the traffic was horrendous. By the time we got to Rue Garibaldi the traffic was gridlocked and after waiting for more than ten minutes the driver finally opened the doors and let us out. The trams weren’t running because of the parade so I had to leg it to Place Massena. The parade had just finished and all the people were walking towards me – again it was like being in Oxford Street on Christmas Eve. I was ten minutes late but Jeannine forgave me. I finished at 7pm and the tram still wasn’t running so I had to walk to the old port. Place Massena looked as wonderful as ever and the atmosphere was magical.

I am really looking forward to going to the parade on Saturday so that I can get in the carnival mood rather than cursing the crowds for making me late for work!

There was a gilets jaunes protest and the more I learn about the working conditions and pay, the 

more I agree with them.

The average working week in France is very long and the pay does not reflect this effort. Celine is 

all for the gilets jaunes telling me that they/we have to work very long hours to survive – not to 

live well – but to survive. It’s just a real shame that the hooligans in Paris are giving the 

gilets jaunes such a bad reputation.