A flat full of woe

Well, not really - now the flat has stopped trying to kill us, it's quite pleasant really. It's the neighbours that are the problem. We face onto a courtyard with flats on each side of us, and the people in there are *noisy*. On a level even I find difficult to live with. Skyrock is not my favourite radio station (rap is not my favourite accompaniment to dissertation writing, oddly) and the screaming, shouting arguments are getting old very, very quickly. The mad woman at the end who mutters about the English and throws her possessions off her balcony in fits of pique is, well, disturbing.

The last straw was sitting on our balcony watching our Skyrock-playing neighbour climbing from his balcony into the balcony of his next-door neighbour and go through everything left out there - bags, boxes, the fridge, everything - collecting things as he went. No idea if he was allowed to do so (one would think the whole climbing balcony to balcony bit would imply not) and I'm certainly not getting involved (he's the one with the screaming violent arguments). But it's making me a little uncomfortable about my own balcony and the accessibility of our flat. Big windows are nice, for letting light in - but they also let people in quite easily, too...

We went for dinner in Villefranche yesterday, and it's wonderful. Calm, quiet, small, old fishing village slightly modernised - the old town is like walking into a postcard, it's stunningly beautiful. And the water is crystal clear. Maybe we should move there...