French Escape

  It’s been an eventful week. A mid week birthday means that I am now officially a pensioner, in receipt of my state pension. On the same day, the   paperback version of my third book, Journey's End, was released.   Thank you for all the lovely birthday messages and, thank you to those who have already ordered my book. I have spent time with friends, swum each morning and, at the weekend,  as a birthday treat to myself, I visited the Monet exhibition in the Grimaldi Forum, Monte Carlo (taking advantage of the pensioner discount of course) . The heat has meant that I have not been the only one taking an early morning dip at Rondelli beach. B efore the sun is fully up w hole families are set up on the beach, to take advantage of the comparative cool. A text from a friend in England reminded me of the advantages of cold water swimming but I have to point out, cold water means a completely different thing in England. Since I arrived, the average sea temperature here has been 23℃. I

  It seems to have been a long process (perhaps it's because I have been relocating to a new country at the same time) but the paperback is now available to order online and from your favourite bookshop. Waterstones Blackwells Amazon These are the big ones but independant bookshops can order it too —support them.  I felt very sad when I finished Journey's End, not because it is a sad book but because it meant saying goodbye to my characters.  I shall miss Hilary and her friends.  I hope that you enjoy reading Journey's End as much as I enjoyed writing it and while you read it, I'll be in my little corner getting to know my new charsacters and writing the next book.

Since I last wrote, I have been finding my feet, settling into my life in Menton.  Until Wednesday I had no Internet and was relying on the hotspot from my iPhone. In spite of this, I decided to start on the list of admin tasks that was growing by the day. Validating my visa was at the top of the list. The process seemed straightforward, until I came to a question that asked me to select a code—there was a choice of two. A picture showed me where the code would appear on the visa, but my visa had a blank space. Fortunately, I wasn’t the first person to notice this omission and trawling the online expat forum, I discovered that the consensus was to use the second set of numbers, so that’s what I did. Hopefully, in doing so I haven’t declared myself a diplomat or illegal alien, but it seemed to allow me to continue to the conclusion of the form and pay my €200.  As I understand it, the process of validation  provides access to an online portal that, when the time comes, will allow renewa