A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 1787 (Saturday) 30 th April 2022 The weather was quite disappointing this morning, we had planned on going to the Jolly Whale in la Darse for lunch with Suzanne and John but it was quite overcast so we cancelled it. The weather was OK  but not warm enough to sit outside for lunch. Every day  that I’ve worked in the last few weeks have been lovely and sunny but at the weekends it’s been cloudy – I can’t wait for the sunshine and heat to be guaranteed very soon.  Badger had a big lie in on top of the wardrobe – he wins the cutest cat of the day award today. I did my Duolingo this morning and saw that I had dropped down to third place but after doing two tests I got back up to first place! We had a good laugh in Le Phare last night and I had a short conversation with Seb and Willow in French and they seemed to be really pleased that I’m trying.  Our flowers are looking great now Even the bougainvillea is coming along nicely but Badger is still eating the scarlet sage. Ten things to n

  Day 1786 (Friday) 29 th April 2022 Huw took this photo last night, what a lovely colour the rose is I did my Duolingo this morning and I was amazed to see my name at the top of the leader board of the diamond league! We both do Duo every day but still really struggle with everyday French. Huw’s French is better than mine because he doesn’t care about making mistakes, which I have been telling students to do in English for over 20 years but because of my job I want to get it right so I say very little. We’ve got our teacher Sylvie this afternoon – she is about the only French person I feel comfortable talking to her. Even young Oceane laughed at my pronunciation this week.   It was lovely and warm this morning and there was a cruise ship in the bay – let’s hope they all spend lots of money in the shops, bars and restaurants. For once Eduard was only 7 minutes late today – that’s punctual for him. I spent an hour with him looking at false friends and word pairs and then an hour with O

  Day 1785 (Thursday) 28 th April 2022 I made a cheese souffle for dinner last night and was amazed that I had three double-yolk eggs out of the same box, one after another. I know that’s not very exciting but it was really interesting at the time. We had to get up super early this morning because I had an 8.20 start in Ipag. While we were getting ready to get on Kisbee we were a tad miffed to see that they are building the dreaded private beach Delhi Bo, our beach isn’t big enough to house this expensive monstrosity. Despite being so early we didn’t need a coat on Kisbee this morning, just a light jacket – summer is coming. To get to Ipag we have to go past La Tete Carree –. We really must go inside this wonderful building one of these days. Tete Carree, Nice Iconic city library in the centre of Nice also known as 'thinking inside the box' A monumental sculpture standing 28m high, La Tête Carrée looms over one of Nice’s busiest intersections. Meaning “square head”, La Tête Ca