A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

  Day 2036 (Tuesday) 27 th October 2020 I’m happy to say that it was lovely and sunny again this morning and I woke up with Badger on my pillow. I had to leave a bit earlier this morning because I had to buy my weekly ticket because we missed the opening hours in Beaulieu yesterday. The Villefranche ticket office is only open on Tuesdays and a few years ago this would have wound me up but these days I just do the Gaelic shrug and accept these lovely French strange ways. I took cash as well in case it wasn’t open but gladly it was. The man from Beaulieu station was there he was pleased to see that I had got my Zou card and told me how much money I can save if I use it properly. We started the conversation in French but when it got really complicated we switched to English. He asked me where I was born and when I said Wales he told me that he loved Bonnie Tyler; of all the people from Wales who have done good it had to be her. He was impressed when I told him that I’d seen her many ...

  Day 2035 (Monday) 26 th October 2020 Shock horror it wasn’t sunny this morning and the forecast is pretty bleak and I had to go to Monaco.  Badger was super helpful when I tried to get dressed – not! It wasn’t raining when I walked to the station but the sky was pretty horrible. I had a bit of a shock when I checked the train timetable – my train was 30 minutes late! I phoned Natacha and asked her to contact Eduard and Olga to let them know. I was early so I had a 40-minute wait, I had my puzzle book so I wasn’t too bored but bored enough to take a photo of Badger’s bite marks in my silver shoes. The rain stayed away until I got to the penthouse thank goodness and Eduard and Olga were very understanding about my tardiness. This is the reception area of the Columbus hotel   I spent an hour in the kitchen with Olga and then an hour and a half with Eduard in the living room. I was very glad that I had prepared a challenging lesson for Eduard because he was very appreciabl...

  Day 2034 (Sunday) 25 th October 2020 It was glorious again this morning and we were both feeling rather lazy so I made the most of the sunshine and sunbathed all morning. Sadly it clouded over and I was forced back indoors so I did all my prep for Monday and Tuesday. I then got lazy again and did my jigsaw for a few hours. The clocks went back last night and I have no idea why it bothers me so much but every time they change I’m out of sorts all day; it feels a but like jetlag.  Yesterday we went to Le Phare to watch the second half of Ireland versus Italy and were really surprised that none of the Irish lot were there, we were expecting them to be out in force. We were very surprised to see this sign on the bar Masks are compulsory and no drinks without a meal. They did this in Ireland a while ago and I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now. What’s the difference between going for a drink and going for a meal? Seb assured us that us locals don’t have to buy food as if ...

  Day 2033 (Saturday) 24 th October 2020 Yay – it’s the weekend and it’s warm and sunny once more! Huw went to Beaulieu to do some shopping and I read my book in the sunshine sunbathing – bliss!  Our chilly plant looked lovely glistening in the sunshine. We watched the new All Creatures Great and Small the other night so I decided to read it again. The TV show is well done but there are too many unnecessary changes to the original story, you can never beat a book! Wales and France are playing a ‘friendly’ game of rugby tonight and the kick-off is at 9pm so we can’t watch it in Le Phare; day one of the curfew and we’ve already been affected. I had a text from Prissy this morning saying that for the last night of freedom then went to an Irish bar in Nice Old Port and drank beer and ate fish and chips! How un-French is that? I also got a text from Gilles saying that he has started watching ‘Allo, Allo’ and he’s really enjoying it but thinks he’s not getting it all. I was really ...