And, now, the end is near...

The moving van is booked. Stuff is going in boxes. Bags of unwanted clothes are going to charity bins. It's time to leave again.

As you'll all have noted from the long gaps between posts, I've not been around much. Not having internet at home has made blogging difficult. Work is not interesting to write about. Out of work stuff, I won't talk about somewhere Googleable and attached to my own name... Part-time expatting also takes up a lot of time, most of it spent in airports. (I don't really recommend it.) And, in a week or so, I won't even be a part-time expat.

Which means it's probably time to finally wrap up this blog.

I've been escaping packing to wander around one last time with my camera. Some photos follow - there may be a few posts of photos, depending on how inspired I'm feeling, and how long my camera batteries last.

It's been fun, looking back on everything I've written, all the weird and wonderful things I've done. I hope those of you who read it have found it interesting, and maybe useful. (If anyone reading this in the future because they're moving to Nice wants to chat about any of it, send me an email or something.) I might do one more post, a more introspective one, looking at how I've changed and what I've got out of the year or so I've been away. Not for any of you, because few things are probably more boring than other people's introspection, but because it would be a useful thing for me to do before finally leaving and getting stuck back into being a non-expat.

Anyway, photos from today...

Oh, and last but very much not least, Oscar has an orange! All of his very own! One that's actually orange!

You never know, I might start an English blog. If I do and you want the link, let me know.

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Oscar the orange tree

Shopping yesterday in Italy was fun! I came back several euros lighter, but with a new rug, a new shirt and Oscar. Our new orange tree. We're going to have fresh orange juice in the mornings any day now...

Here are the first photos of Oscar in his new home. He looks more settled there than on the train, where I did get several odd looks. One family of older people sitting across the aisle from us were concerned that I might be trying to take him back to the UK - they relaxed noticeably when I reassured them I knew that would kill him, he was going to live on my balcony over here...

Oscar:

Today I may go and buy a hammock for the balcony.

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Christmas in Villefranche

Villefranche's half-hearted attempt at a municipal Christmas tree:



We decided it was time to put up our own Christmas tree yesterday. (After I'd hoovered, obviously. For future reference, don't hoover until you've put up the tree, it'll be a total waste of time. Even if it's a plastic and metal tree, they still drop bits everywhere.)

So in the afternoon, we bought our fake tree and Christmas decorations from the tacky Christmas shop, and put it together - with the slight hitch that tacky-Christmas-shop baubles don't come with anything to hang them on. So we still need to hang some of them up today, since we ran out of those wire-tie things.

Anyway, the joy that is our Christmas tree:


In the morning, before we put the tree up, we went for a walk around the citadel - which is also where the Villefranche mairie has decided to put itself (and where the tree at the top of the post comes from). Walking around the outside of the citadel walls to get to the port, it was sunny and hot, and I thought I'd show you some photographs, so you can understand why we weren't totally inspired by the joys of Christmas when it came to decorating.

(Unlike our neighbours in the old flat, who were playing "Last Christmas" by Wham. On a loop. For over an hour. I was close to killing them.)

Views from the citadel walkway:

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