Day 661 (Sunday) 31^st March 2019

We had an early start again this morning – Huw wanted to start early but I didn’t but Badger was having none of it! Huw went down to the new place on Kisbee and I cleaned our flat a bit. I had a hairdresser’s appointment at 11am arranged by Dee at home and when Frank arrived Badger was seriously well behaved for the hour and 20 minutes it took to get my hair cut. I did some washing and put the bottom sheet on a sun lounger to dry and he found a cat cave under it to hide and relax, he was an angel.

 

Frank is a really lovely guy and I hope I will like my hair tomorrow when I wash it and it’s not quite so bouffant. When he finished and we said our fond farewells and I went straight to the bathroom and brushed out the ridiculous curls – it was far too feminine!

Halfway through the cut Andy phoned me asking if we wanted a free washing machine. Yves, who runs the restaurant below Andy’s flat, is moving and getting rid of his Electrolux washer/dryer. I immediately said yes and arranged to meet him later to sort it out.

I walked into town carrying a number of big paintings to the new place and saw Andy and co in the bar and arranged to see Yves as soon as possible.

Huw had finished the last coat of the satin on the woodwork in the living room and it’s looking great.

This is one of the dining chairs that Harry gave us yesterday…

 

The plan for today was to walk down to the beach to the car boot sale in the car park; it’s been the talk of the town for weeks but we didn’t make it because of the washing machine. When I got to number 44 it was incredible to see a big traffic jam in Villefranche and we think it was for the car boot sale.

I was brought up in a very small town in Wales so I remember the small town attitude very well but Huw, as a Londoner, has never experienced this before and he loves it. I thoroughly enjoyed the anonymity of London for 13 years but I am loving this small community life once more.

We went back to the bar and asked Sean and Seb very nicely if they could help us with the washing machine and they agreed. Andy asked the baker next door if we could borrow a trolley and he happily agreed.

Sean, Huw and I went to see Yves, whose restaurant is now open again

and we saw that we needed Seb as well so while the men removed the machine from the kitchen I went to get Seb to come and help get it down the stairs. They soon had it all under control and we entertained all the people having lunch on Rue du Poilu moving our new washing machine.

When we got to number 44 there was a lot of discussion about how the hell we were going to get it up the stairs but they soon worked it out

and very soon it was in – hooray!

We never made it to the car boot sale because we wanted to thank the lads for helping us so much and we ended up having and paying for a few beers to thank them.

Now that the clocks have gone forward it was wonderful to walk home in the sunshine. My new hairdresser today told me that we’re going to expect a few cloudy days coming up, which I find shocking, and he also told me that it hasn’t rained for 53 days.