A Year in Villefranche sur Mer - Moving to France

    Day 2088 (Saturday) 25 th February 2023. The Nice Matin announced yesterday that the end of the carnival in Nice has been brought forward to tonight instead of tomorrow because they are expecting a storm with snow and ice on Sunday. I cannot believe it’s going to snow, it’s not even cold. We went to Le Phare last night and sat outside, we had coats on but it was definitely warmer. Dee was there and we haven’t seen her for weeks and Alex and Jacquie were also there so we had a good evening. This morning was quite cloudy but not cold and we were surprised to see the king of the carnival in the bay. They will take him to the Promenade des Anglais later and burn him. Nice Carnival: Facts and Figures None of the following photos are mine Nice Carnival Poster from 1898 [Public Domain] These facts and figures show how the carnival of Nice is so popular… ranking as one of France’s largest carnivals: The first mention dates back to  1294 204,000 spectators , including 12% int...

  Day 2087 (Friday) 24 th February 2023. Today’s photos The Gorge du Verdon This is Saint Tropez When I got to the Maybourne Riviera I had a lovely surprise; my room was being used for another training station so I had to go to a room. I was expecting a different room for the staff but when my students took me up to the 12 th floor and into a guest suite I was amazed. It costs 10,000€ a night and has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, two sitting rooms and two dressing rooms. This is one of the dressing rooms Recently the lead vocalist of Depeche Mode stayed in this suite and one of my students was called to his room and found him fast asleep on the sofa with his mouth hanging open – at first Stephane thought he was dead but he was just asleep. I Googled him when I got home and I can’t work out how he has enough money to spend 10,000€ a night in the Maybourne. Dave Gahan is the lead vocalist and co-songwriter for the Alternative Rock and New Wave band  Depeche Mode . He was bo...