WHERE ARE WE ANNE?

COTE D'AZUR

A CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH

THEOULE SUR MER

First post in a long time. Thanks to my faithful few who have urged me to post again, and here it is!

We've been en France for two months. We're here mostly for a better time zone fit for a contract consultancy job that Anne has, rather than be up working all night in Australia. We are just about to head off to the UK so I better squeeze in a retrospective post or two.

We arrived in Theoule Sur Mer on the Cote D’Azur early May just as they were setting up for the Cannes Film Festival across the bay. Back in Australia before we left, a chance conversation with a friend ended up with us renting her friend's holiday house on the side of a hill with billion dollar views. It was a 1970’s un-renovated DIY time capsule. A James Bond inspired concrete creation, nestled in amongst a hillside of otherwise mega luxury holiday homes, most of which were empty while we were there.

With quiet roads and national park behind us, we went out walking, exploring, driving, shopping and going to Cannes while the film festival was on, but the best part of the day was always coming home. Such a stunning view and the remarkable peace and quiet from the crowds below, it was just perfect. It was a view you could never grow tired of with the changing weather and sweeping views across the Bay of Cannes to the snow capped Alpes. No wonder we ate in on all but two nights.

You can't write about this place without mentioning the wealth on show. Every day was a passing parade of outrageous wealth in mega yachts while private jets swarmed around Cannes airport. I would google the yachts in the bay and see who owned them. Very interesting, looks like the big money is in French Telecom, British mobile phones, UK retail stores and Australian shopping centres. Well, they were some of the owners who anchored below us. 'Octopus' owned by the co founder of Microsoft anchored off Cannes for the festival decorated with a helicopter at each end. I've seen Mercedes models here that I've never seen before and I'm starting to get used to the Bentleys, Rollers and expensive go fast options.

We woke one morning to find a young deer paddling laps around the pool. This was early May and the water was cold. It could have been there for hours. The deer swam straight towards me when I went to help it, no fear at all, it must have decided there was no time to lose. I managed to pull it out antler first, it didn't go far but after some time recovering, shivering and thawing out in the garden it got up and wandered off.

While Anne was working week days, I was full time yacht research with the plan to go looking in Croatia in Sept/Oct. But, as one thing leads to another and then another, with twists and turns along the way, I ended up buying one or at least putting the deposit on an Australian flagged one while we were there so it seems I have bought into a whole new line of adventure.

We felt very lucky to have had a great time and a great month spent in our eyrie before we headed on down to a new location for a month in the far more urban beach side setting of Juan les Pins.