A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 752 (Sunday) 30 th June 2019 What a bloody day – it’s stinking hot and we had to clean two apartments with a check-in and a check in both! Huw dropped me off at Cactus Roc and the whinging Aussies were waiting for their taxi to the airport as they were flying to London. He then went down to the big apartment to let Trinny in and to see Freddy off. Of course Freddy wasn’t ready so he gave him until midday to get out as we have a check in at 4pm this afternoon. I made a start on Cactus Roc and was pleasantly surprised that they left it in a good state. Huw and Trinny joined me and we got the whole place done fairly quickly and painlessly. I love the view from up there but I wouldn’t want to walk back home every day! The new guests arrived just 8 minutes before the last wash was finished so Huw went down to the other place and I did the check in while Trinny waited outside. The new guests are Mr. and Mrs. Bond and Huw was convinced that she is someone famous becau...

Day 751 (Saturday) 29 th June 2019 It was another scorcher today and we decided to go to Mandelieu la Napoule, which is just after Cannes and it looks amazing with its castle on the seafront. Pat said last night that he would call in this morning to give us some advice about the kitchen shelves so we checked the train timetable and we were able to go after 11am. At 9am I got a phone call from Brian (the owner of Cactus Roc saying that the Aussies hadn’t had hot water for two days. Huw had seen them two days ago and everything was fine. They are checking out tomorrow so why wait two days before telling us they didn’t have hot water? They are the least Australian people I have ever met, Aussies are normally really down to earth and very practical, and thus their invention of the phrase ‘no worries mate’. After a number of phone calls and emails, it was finally decided that Huw had to go up to see what was wrong. It turned out that the pilot light of the water boiler had go...

Day 750 (Friday) 28 th June 2019 It was seriously hot at 9 this morning – our thermometer read 44 degrees and poor Badger hates it, he was even panting a few times and he spent most of the day hiding in my wardrobe. We went down the front to have a coffee with Sue and Kay before they left and we were surprised that they had chosen the café attached to the Welcome hotel, which is THE most expensive café in town. They had a coffee, Huw had an orange juice and I had a small bottle of Orangina and it came to 17€. Sue wanted to give us a treat and paid for it all, bless her. They called an uber and we waved them off; Kay was going home but the jetsetter Sue was flying to Lisbon to meet her children to celebrate Nick’s (her son) 30 th birthday. Nick was in my class in London for a year and I remember him celebrating his 21 st birthday – where does the time go? We went for a short walk along the front and it was good to see all the French and American bunting fla...