Monday 4th
Departed Heathrow mid-morning and met up with Mad,Ton, Jilly and David at the Cafe des Arcades, Valbonne. A very ordinary lunch but everyone was very chatty.
A pity that Jilly and David needed to leave the next day so we won’t see them again for quite awhile. We returned home having bought a few essentials at U-Express.
Both of us fairly knackered so an early night.
Tuesday 5th
The morning started with a meeting with Giles at the Giraf agency. He told us that his possible client was no longer interested. After a lot of bs from Giles we told him we intended to visit other agents in La Colle.
After some shopping we parked near Orpi Agency to see Fanny. She gave us the contract which surprisingly consisted of 22 pages. We took the document away to read it. One aspect of the agreement that I didn’t agree with, I wrote and told her. She plans to come over tomorrow at 9am.
On our return home I mentioned to Maggi that I hadn’t bought her a present for her birthday tomorrow. We had discussed what she wanted, a bracelet or wallet. In the afternoon we decided to drive to Tourette.
We normally park outside the village at a large free car par, but today I drI’ve straight past and through to the town centre square. As we drove along the road we both spotted a leather shop. As soon as we parked we headed back along the main road and pushed the door open.
Lots of leather lay around the shop. A elderly woman appeared from the back of the premises. Our host made and sold the leather goods inside the shop. Well she didn’t make everything. We ended up buying a wallet and bracelet for Maggi and a credit card holder for me.
The owner told us that she had just returned from holiday yesterday, so we were lucky to find her open. I enjoyed shopping at this little artisan shop and provide this lady with a part of her living. A much warmer feeling than turning up at a store that’s part of a chain.
After our shopping spree we walked round the corner for a glass of wine at La Cave de Tourette’s. We sat outside on the balcony with a view over the valley where the sound of the running stream made very pleasant background music. I had a very nice glass of red while Maggi drank champagne.
We returned home where we ate a prepared meal from Grand Frais
Wednesday 6th
Maggi’s birthday and a busy morning. I needed to go to the local ATM and withdraw €1000 to pay the various people who work on the property before 9 am.
Fanny from Orpi arrived at 9 am and we talked about various aspects of the sale including the cost of what she calls the ‘diagnostic report’. The agents are required to give this report to a prospective buyer and it mostly covers the heat loss from the house, but can include the presence of asbestos and lead.
When she left with Maggi and I having signed a slightly amended contract we had a chat with Andrzej the gardener and paid him. After Andrzej came Richard who needed paying.
All done and we set off for Biot where Mads and Tom waited to celebrate Maggi’s birthday at the Restaurant Des Arcades. Mads had a present for Maggi. We sat outside in the square along with a party of approximately 20 plus a few other tables.
Because of the the large party service was somewhat slow but we weren’t in a hurry. The restaurant has a gallery downstairs in the basement. I had a look around while I searched for the toilet.
I had a very large dish of herring in oil with boiled potato which was a lot more pleasant than it sounds. For my next course I tried one of the vegetarian dishes although it went by the name 3 viandes. It was similar in texture and format to moussaka and came with roasted potatoes and tomato sauce. Maggi and Madeleine had a pudding which seemed a bit overt the top to me.
We didn’t have any coffees at the end of the meal and it came to €96 per couple. We had spent about 2 ½ hours at the restaurant.
We stopped at the Cafe de la post for our coffees and found out that our waiter spoke perfect English.
In the evening I watched Arsenal lose 1-0 to Inter Milan. A somewhat strange penalty decision against Arsenal and then they couldn’t break through a very well organised defence.
Thursday 7th
A much more lazy start today. We didn’t leave the house until 10:30 when we walked down to Avenue D’Ancien Gare where we have booked a AirBnB for post Xmas. We couldn’t see inside but from the exteriuer it looks fine.
Picked up a loaf of bread for our picnic lunch on the beach and popped into Orpi to pick up the signed contract with the agent.
We drove down to the sea opposite the horse racing place and sat down to eat our sandwiches in the sun. All very nice. We then set off towards Villeneuve-Loubet Plage in order to get a minimum amount of exercise.
In the afternoon I had a short siesta and then helped in the garden weeding the outside flower bed.
Saturday 9th in Nice
A trip to Nice where we bought me some things in Gallerie Lafayette and had a very nice lunch at Fineguele which was topped off with a chocolate covered pear.
Finally we drove over to Cap 3000 where I bought a jacket in Gallerie Lafayette.
Sunday 10th Home
Left La Colle in the sunshine for the airport kinda sad to leave the good weather.