A British expat in Nice: market

Turns out the event they're hosting at the mairie is a giant market. With flowers and cheeses and sausages and jewellery and Italian lessons and all sorts of things.

We carefully resisted the cheeses and sausages (though the samples were nice) and managed to only buy a couple of flowers - one yellow/orange one and one blue one - to keep Oscar and friends company.

I forgot my camera, so you can't see all the bright colours of the flowers for sale - if it's sunny, I might go back tomorrow, some of those cactuses were stunning! - but I have a photo of Oscar and friends on the balcony getting used to their new colleagues. You'll perhaps notice that Oscar has no orange oranges yet - I blame the loss of the Role Model Orange. But he does have flowers that are beginning to open and smell nice.

Oscar and family:

Today's news: we got a bank account (It took nearly an hour and a half. I'm sure it doesn't take that long in the UK, does it? I vaguely remember it taking about 5 minutes...). Our bank manager person is lovely - a bit mad, but lovely - and we now have a joint account, on the production of just our passports and proof of address, with cards and chequebooks and things to come shortly. I also, during the course of this long, long process, found out that the market is 6 days a week (not Mondays), is just outside the bank, is cheaper during the week, and is at its peak at about 9am. Bank managers in Brighton just don't tell you these things...

We don't, yet, have a flat. Tomorrow, apparently. Our painter fell off a ladder, and the electrics are being finished this evening. So, by the weekend, we won't be homeless any more!

Random photos from around Nice follow - note the colour of the sky; that's what summer looks like, for those of you still back in the UK...

Oh - and my hat! It's fabulous, don't you think? (note: "No" is an unacceptable answer, here.)