A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 874 (Thursday) 31 st October 2019 I had an email last night from the manager of the big apartment we look after asking if we could do a check-in on Christmas day! I replied asking what time because we have invited some friends to our place for lunch. He replied saying they wanted us to be there at 3.30pm – how dare these guests expect us to give up our Christmas day for a bloody check-in? So selfish. Why don’t these people think about us? It’s not a 5-star hotel; it’s Airbnb! I replied saying that we are prepared to check them in before 1pm on the 25 th or before 6pm on the 24 th , I’m still waiting for the reply! If this does happen we are going to treble our usual rate. Talking about Christmas I found this article about how to serve champagne – yum yum How to serve champagne Is there a perfect temperature to serve champagne? What exactly does 'chilled' mean? Richard Hemming explains and recommends some French fizzes Q. I know that cha...

Day 873 (Wednesday) 30 th October 2019 It was lovely and sunny again this morning and I enjoyed my morning coffee on the balcony. Huw gave me a lift to Beaulieu and we were surprised to see quite a few people on the beach and six people swimming in the sea. It’s lovely and warm but I don’t think it’s swimming weather. I spent an hour with 14-year-old Sarah and we worked on her school project called ‘Time Capsule’ and we had a lot of fun planning it. She has to choose some items to seal up in a box that shouldn’t be opened until she is 24. We chose various items of clothing, jewellery and she wrote a letter to herself. She is normally really shy and quiet but she became quite animated today. After an hour it was her mother’s turn and we had a nice chat about singing. We went out on the balcony and I was amazed to see the size of the pool they have access to. Their enormous cat was happily sitting in her box on the balcony I was lucky with the bus today a...

Day 872 (Tuesday) 29 th October 2019 It was a lovely day again today and my bougainvillea is coming along very nicely. Huw needed to go to Nice to get some spices from his favourite Asian shop so he kindly dropped me off in Magnan in Nice where Celine picked me up and we went to her apartment. We spent the first hour sitting on the balcony drinking coffee and chatting and then we went inside and spent two hours looking at grammar. She gave me a lift back to the tram stop and I got the tram to the centre and did a bit of shopping in Massena.   I got the bus from the Old Port and was soon back in the lovely Villefranche. Going back to yesterday’s article about food in France – here is the next bit. Tipping in restaurants in France This is a subject that seems to cause endless arguments on travel forums... Should I tip in a restaurant in France, and if so how much? Some travel forums seem to be occupied by cheapskate folk righteous...