A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 114 8 ( Fri day) 31 st July 2020 This is what I woke up to this morning 15 minutes before the alarm thank god he’s so pretty. It was seriously hot this morning and the Grasse train was late again so I got to the park earlier than usual and found a nice shady spot under a tree. At the beginning of our class one of the older boys apologised to me in front of the class for their behaviour yesterday and I was really touched…until they did exactly the same again within an hour. I hid in the park during our break. William gave me some biscuits and sweets to them at the end and they scoffed the lot very quickly. We played ‘How to murder your teacher’ and one group actually acted it out on me – they mimed tying me up and slit my throat! The last game of Pictionary was even louder than usual and I was really pleased when Lili, William’s 8-year-old daughter got one right before the hours. I was very to say goodbye to them at midday. I had a chat with William before going home ...

Day 114 7 ( Thurs day) 30 th July 2020 We had a great night last night and stayed out the latest for a long time and on a school night as well. There was another terrace party night when they close some of the roads and spread the tables and chairs across the road and the atmosphere was electric. We met Kevin and Angie in the Good Mood café on the seafront and had a glass of wine I managed to get a photo of these dancers without having to tip them. There was love music everywhere and people were joining in and dancing in the streets.   It was filthy hot this morning and it was a struggle to get out of bed after a late night. The kids weren’t quite as bad as they were yesterday but it was still a long three hours. I saw a great example of French parking on the way back to the station – both of these cars were parked on this zebra crossing – you’ve got to love them, When I got home I got a te...

Day 114 6 ( Wednes day) 2 9 th July 2020 It was very hot and sweaty this morning and I had a nice chat with Olivier across the train tracks. I had my usual quiet minutes in Parc Mozart. The kids started off well enough but after break they turned into bloody monsters. I’ve lost count how many times I asked them to be quiet and I said ‘shut up’ a number of times. As usual we played Pictionary to end the class and they were shouting so loud I couldn’t take it – every single one of them has a really squeaky voice. I heard one of them giving the correct answer so I pointed to her and she came to the board. Meanwhile the tallest girl started yelling at me that she got it first; I explained that I couldn’t hear over all the noise and she answered me back again. That was it I just said ‘game over’ and sat down. It 5 to 12 and one of the nicer girls said ‘we’ve still got 5 minutes’ so I answered ‘no we haven’t!’ we sat in silence until 12 o’clock when I dismissed them. Thank god there’...

Day 114 5 ( Tues day) 2 8 th July 2020 Another 7am alarm and it was pretty hot – I found this forecast in the Local yesterday… France braces for 'very hot week' as temperatures set to hit 40C Monday kicked off what was predicted to be an extremely hot week in France, with some areas in the south seeing temperatures "approaching July records," according to Météo France. The national weather agency warned of a "very strong heat" hitting the whole country on Monday, as France entered one of the hottest weeks this summer. "The warmest temperatures locally in the southwest could approach monthly July records," Météo France  stated  on their website. Cities like Bordeaux and Lyon were predicted to see thermometers spiking as high as 34C and 37C respectively on Monday afternoon, while Paris would get 32C. Most of the northern half of the mainland would see temperatures up to or above 30C, while some local areas in the south would get 40C i...