A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

  Day 2640 (Friday) 30 th August 2024 The parade for liberation day yesterday was so much better than we expected and as usual I took way too many photos. First there’s a short video… This was taken from our balcony before we got down there and these were taken on the seafront  There were about 20 jeeps, a few trucks and a tank. They drove up to the citadel where they were on display to the public and lots of people, mostly kids, were standing on the vehicles getting their photos taken – the atmosphere was great. It was very hot again this morning and Huw found this article online, there is some repetition but  but you get the picture… August breaks a historical temperature record: it has never been so hot in Nice. August has just broken a record in Nice: it has never been so hot, with an average minimum temperature of 24.3°C, beating the previous record set during the heatwave of 2003. Do you think it was hot this August? That's normal, we have just broken a historical record and

  Day 2639 (Thursday) 29 th August 2024 This is Antibes and this is Villa Kerylos in Beaulieu-sur-Mer.    We’ve entered another canicule (heatwave) and it was seriously hot this morning – 42 degrees on the thermometer on the balcony.   We had a check-out in the big apartment yesterday but there’s no big rush to get it ready for the next guests so we did a few hours this morning, the air-con was wonderful. Today is the anniversary of the liberation of Villefranche-sur-Mer after the war– it was 80 years ago today that Villefranche was liberated from the Nazis. We’ll go into town in a bit to watch the jeeps and the ceremony – this is the schedule… At this time of year most French people feel quite flat because the August holidays are nearly over and it’s time for ‘la rentrée’… Why 'la rentrée' means so much more in France than a new school year Photo by PASCAL PAVANI / AFP As we arrive at la rentrée, here's a look at this French word which, while it's often translated as

  Day 2638 (Wednesday) 28 th August 2024 This is Nice and this is Grasse.   As it was Wednesday Huw had to go and clean Ken’s pool this morning and I thoroughly enjoyed a lie in. When he came home he brought a paper bag and straightaway Badger was in it. We had a lovely lazy day at home. Is it rude to mop your plate with bread in France (I really like this spoon/fork) Is it OK to mop up leftover sauce with a piece of bread in France? Photo by REMY GABALDA / AFP France is the home of delicious sauces and every meal comes with bread - so is it OK to use the bread to mop up the last morsels of sauce from your plate? In some countries, using bread to 'mop' your plate is considered rather uncouth. In the UK, for example, polishing your plate in this fashion might (if you're somewhere posh) be met with raised eyebrows or an ironic command to 'leave the pattern on the plate'. In France, this action is more common, in fact there is even a verb to describe 'mopping up s