A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

Day 355 (Monday) Just after I posted my blog last night this Corsica ferry turned up in the bay. We have watched this go along the horizon since we got here but this is the first time it’s come into the bay. I’m hoping the hard-working crew are having a little holiday! On the way to the bus stop I saw one of the best French parking ever. A woman pulled up in front of these two garages and put her make up on before leaving the car. She could have just blocked one of the garages but no, she decided to block them both, I hope neither of the garage owners wanted to use their cars today. It was a strike day again today I had to wait 20 minutes for the bus and when it finally arrived it was totally empty. It had come from Nice and there wasn’t a soul on board. There is no rhyme or reason with the 100 bus whatsoever but I was very happy to get a seat all the way. As you know I’ve been catching this bus for a few months and I’m learning the names of all the stops, not that I w...

Day 354 (Sunday) After such a long day yesterday we had a lovely lie in and a very lazy day today. There were two monster cruise ships in the bay and we pretended to care who won the Grand Prix! I did a little bit of preparation for tomorrow and some pottering and gardening but not much else. My sweet Williams are looking the best they have ever looked   I took a cutting from my lovely uncle Howard's garden before he died and I had them every year in London since. When I had to give my garden away to friends when we moved here I just brought one stem and hid it in my toilet bag and I’m so pleased it worked. As we did very little today I thought I’d give you some more Peter Mayle thoughtful insight and this time it is more about ‘Fanny’ and boules.   I would love to claim the following photos as my own but I can’t – good old Google images. The version of boules played today was invented 100 years ago in a town called La Ciotat. Until then, the style of play h...

Day 353 (Saturday) Happy 12 th wedding anniversary to us! We met the two Pauls and Tamsin (from last weekend) at the station and it was pretty busy and a member of staff advised us to walk to the end of the platform because the front carriages would have seats for us and when the train arrived we were happy to get seats together. The station was absolutely packed when we got off at Monaco/Monte Carlo and the atmosphere in the streets was wonderful. We were amazed to see street vendors selling food and beer at really reasonable prices; we’d assumed that the mark-up would have been ridiculous today but it wasn’t. I’m so glad we were with the two Pauls and Tamsin because we wouldn’t have found the restaurant in a million years on our own. Okay Huw probably would have found it but with great difficulty. The restaurant was very big and very beautiful with a big terrace where we found our table reserved under Louise’s name.   There were 17 of us altogether and the atmospher...

  Day 352 (Friday) A very early start for me today as I had to be in class in Nice at 9am. For once I didn’t have to wait too long and I got a seat, why can’t it be like this every day? I was a bit early so I walked along Avenue Jean Medicine and found a better shot of the narrow building near H&M. The room on the top floor must be minute. I had a very pleasant two hours with Vincent and Isabelle and they looked really pleased that I’d done my research and found vocabulary about furniture and real estate. From the tram I saw something being erected in Place Massena but I have no idea what it is yet. These tent structures are not usually there so I’d better do some research as we don’t want to miss out on anything. After the crap with the 81 bus on Wednesday I decided to walk down to the old port to get the dreaded 100. I saw this rather strange sight in Place Garibaldi; there were people sitting inside these structures having what looked like a serious meeting. It’s...