Day 1908 (Monday) 29th August 2022

It was 40 degrees again this morning and quite humid and poor Huw had to do some chores in Villefranche and Beaulieu without Kisbee. He went to scooter repair shop in Villefranche this morning but it was still closed so now he’ll have to try in Nice again. 

He found this article in the Nice Matin…  

Nice records an unprecedented number of nights over 20 degrees this summer - The city of Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes, has recorded 61 consecutive tropical nights in a row since June 30th, that is to say with the temperature never dropping below 20 degrees. The previous record was back in 2016 when 58 tropical nights in a row in Nice were recorded. According to Météo-France, the south of France could experience up to 90 tropical nights without interruption.

While I was waiting for Anastasia to arrive I did my French lessons on Duolingo and was delighted to be in first place on the Pearl league leader-board. This didn’t last very long and I was soon down to fourth place.

 

Anastasia arrived promptly at 10am, I think she must wait outside until it’s exactly 10 o’clock. She was as lovely as ever and I’m going to miss seeing her face-to-face. She’s going back to Toulouse on Wednesday so we will have to go back to Zoom. 

This school year is going to be very important because she is doing her bac, which is the equivalent of our A levels.

The baccalauréat (French pronunciation: ​[bakaloʁea]; lit. 'baccalaureate'), often known in France colloquially as the bac, is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the lycée) by meeting certain requirements. Though it has only existed in its present form as a school-leaving examination since Napoleon Bonaparte's implementation on March 17th 1808, its origins date back to the first medieval French universities. According to French law, the baccalaureate is the first academic degree (higher education stricto sensu), though it grants the completion of secondary education. Historically, the baccalaureate is administratively supervised by full professors at universities.

She will only be 17 when she does this because she jumped a year in school, most bac students are 18 when they start university. In the next few months she will have to decide which universities she wants to go to, at the moment she is looking at either Toulouse or Nice but she needs to do more research. She is going to study medicine with the aim of becoming a brain surgeon – I told you she was a genius.

Going out for lunch yesterday meant we missed the accordion player but he was back last night for dinner and he was there over lunch again today. He is still playing the same three songs over and over again and I want to kill him.

The Welcome is the most expensive hotel in Villefranche at around 300€ a night and he starts playing outside this lovely hotel (we spent one night there for my 50th birthday) every lunchtime and dinner time and then repeats himself in every restaurant along the seafront. If I’d paid that much a night to listen to this crap day in day out I’d be furious 

I found an article online about interesting facts about France, I have shared some of them with you already but there are quite a few new ones. The article is more than 3,000 words so I will post a few facts every day… 

Planning a trip to France or simply want to know more about the country? Then check out these 111 interesting facts about France.

1. France is sometimes known as “The Hexagon” due to the fact that it has six sides.

2. When all of France’s possessions around the world are taken into account, including French Polynesia, French Guyana, and Martinique, France occupies the most time zones of any country: 12 of them.

3. Beloved Paris was a Roman city originally. In those day it was known as “Lutetia”.

4. In addition to being the most studied language in the world after English, French is one of the “romance languages”. Along with Italian and Spanish, all of these languages have their beginnings in Latin.

5. The French Army was the first to use camouflage. During World War I, artists painted vehicles and equipment to blend into their respective backgrounds.

6. Over one-half of the traffic roundabouts in the world are located in France.

7. In the Second World War, when Hitler visited the Eiffel Tower, the French cut all of the lift cables. This forced him to climb the stairs if he wanted to enjoy the view from the top.

8. In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron became the youngest ever President of his country at the age of 39.

9. King Louis XIX had the shortest reign in history: 20 minutes. His father had abdicated the throne, and Louis followed him in abdicating in favour of his nephew.

10. France made history in 2016 by banning supermarkets from throwing out unsold food items. These stores are now required to donate the food to charities and food banks.

11. During the Second World War, the Mosque of Paris protected French Jews from the Nazis by supplying them with Muslim Identification cards.

12. The most well-known bicycle race in the world, the Tour de France, began in 1903.

13. Keeping food fresh is easier thanks to the French. Nicolas Appert, a confectioner by trade, came up with the concept of canning foods, using sealed glass containers which were placed in boiling water. Pierre Durand came up with a practical way to preserve food in tin cans.

14. The guillotine was the official method of execution in France from 1792 until the death penalty was abolished in 1981.

15. Always forward-thinking, the French were the first to introduce the concept of license plates for automobiles in 1893.

16. The capital of France is Paris. It has a population of approximately 2.3 million.

17. The French government has mandated that at least 40% of all music played on private radio stations in the country be of French origin. Half of that quota of French music is also required to be less than six months old.

18. Another one of those cool things about France is that in total land area, France is the largest country in the European Union.

19. Between 1814 and 1830 the official flag of the Kingdom of France was simply a plain white field with no other colours, symbols, or borders.

20. The famous Lascaux Caves in France have rock paintings in them dating back over 17,000 years.

It’s huge!

This one looks more like a bear than a cat