Imagine you come across a guy with a Brooklyn accent, a beer belly and too short pants who’s drinking a coke with a very well done steak. Must be an American, you suppose. Maybe, maybe not. Actually, according to his passport he’s French. He could be one of an increasing number of Americans, here and elsewhere, who have traded in their US...
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But who does he pray for during the Six Nations?

When a parish is told a new priest has been assigned to them there’s always speculation about what he’ll be like. The good folk of Grimaud in the Var were rather surprised about a decade ago when their new curé turned out to be Welsh. “Surprised,” recalls Fr. Peter Watts,...
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With her five children, five horses and a husband who’s Prime Minister of France Penelope Fillon is one Welsh immigrant who has settled in well. She talked to Patrick Middleton

The Welsh seem less ready to leave their native country than their Celtic cousins the Scots and the Irish. When the young Penelope Clarke –...
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WHAT NOW? In a new column about what to do in unexpected situations, we look at retrieving lost objects

Supermarket or shopping centre: objects that are turned in are usually kept on the spot for about 5 days. They’re then passed on to the police or the Service des Objets Trouvés (lost and found...
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New Airport access measures for the handicapped.

In the airline industry the lowest denominator are the low cost carriers who weren't properly catering for handicapped passengers because they get in the way of making money. Until now, wheelchair-pushers were provided by the airlines at their expense -- or in the...
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"Holiday Marina", the popular family campsite on the road between La Foux and Port Grimaud, has undergone a transformation in recent years.

Philip (left) celebrating his 10th anniversary
at Holiday MarinaThe person responsible is Philip Fowles, who purchased the...
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It is not hard work and does not have to cost a fortune to transform your garden, or even the terrace of your apartment, into a haven for butterflies.  The Var Reporter's Wildlife & Nature correspondent, Peter Tunbridge, explains how to go about it.

In order to have...
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The rules in France concerning the transport of small children on scoooters and motorbikes is a question submitted by one reader.

You can transport a child of any age but if he's under 5 he must be strapped into a child seat designed for the purpose and certified (Article R431-11 du code de la route). This seat must have a...
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Nancy Wilson reports on new direct destination from Nice: Tozuer, Tunisia

For those, like myself, who wish to explore Arab culture and language without finding it totally opaque, Tunisia makes for a great stepping stone. Hospitable and humble, Tunisians speak Arabic, French and English and with 300 days of sun...
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The French government is wary of immigrants (including those from the EU) who can't demonstrate they're financially solvent.

The referring laws are:

Code de l'entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d'asile : partie législative, articles L121-1, L 121-2 et L122-1 à L122-3

Code de l'entrée et du...
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I’m sure almost everyone at one time or another has wondered how to soften a corner or an unsightly wall. Often the solution to these types of problems can come in the shape of a climbing plant, nature’s garden gymnasts. With a vast range to choose from, they offer a plethora of differing interests: from size and habit to leaf colour and form,...
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We first visited the Monaco Zoo in these pages some twelve years ago. We weren’t impressed: “Cages are cramped, barren, ill-lit, dirty and show little evidence of care for the specific needs of their occupants.” None of the animals looked happy, most wretched of all was clearly Nina, a Bengal white tiger, “who paced endlessly up and down a...
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A few years ago we ran an interview with British writer Peter Mayle in which he was asked to sum up the appeal of France. His answer: “In one word – lunch.” This drew irritated comments from French readers who wondered why he hadn’t talked about the country’s culture and its contribution to world civilisation. In a token way, at least, this is...
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A year ago we hailed presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy as a welcome change from the usual run of French politicians – those making up what an American observer has called “that snooty, elitist, humourless governing class” so well typified by Dominique de Villepin. Sarko’s immediate predecessors were essentially rather grey men with,...
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One of us for many years had a very bad-tempered dog. For some time he was treated for a chronic ear infection by Nice vet Jean-Louis Turquin. “He had a magic touch with animals,” recalls our colleague. “He’d pat my dog’s head and he’d become as calm as you’d like.” Most of this animal doctor’s clients were surprised when they heard one day...
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There was once an adjoint at the mairie in Nice, Me Rouillot, part of whose brief was to deal with the city’s taxi drivers, including complaints against them. One of us attended his vin d’adieu or retirement do and was assured by the tough old lawyer: “I’ve been involved with them for sixteen years and at the end of...
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That’s where most of our readers have been during the just-ended municipal elections. Of EU citizens with the right to vote only a small number had signed up by the cut-off date of December 31st, less than 700 Brits in the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var, for example. But it’s been an entertaining campaign, especially in Nice and Cannes; sadly, we...
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Aviation in Nice has a long history. It all started in 1901 when Captain Ferber  took to the air in his tethered flying machine. Within a few years the city was a recognised centre of leisure flying. The first scheduled commercial services began in 1936 when Potez Aero-Service opened routes to Toulouse, Bordeaux and Ajaccio. In 1944 the...
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Back in 1993 this magazine welcomed Marks and Spencer to Nice (it was our cover story, Reporter n° 39) and this very British retail presence was welcomed with enthusiasm by many readers, including some French women who had frequented the Marble Arch store and others (they were known as the most persistent shoplifters after the Iranians). People...
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A few issues back we carried an interview with Francis Maude on expat voting. Will the system change? Brian Cave has drawn our attention to this boneheaded contribution from a Professor Blackburn to the proceedings of a Westminster Select Committee on the subject: “There is no reason why an expatriate living hundreds or thousands of miles away,...
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Fewer and fewer Brits are acquiring foreign languages. At the beginning of September 2007, only 5 out of 10 school pupils were learning another tongue, down from 8 out of 10 a decade previously. Since 2004 a foreign language has no longer been obligatory in secondary schools. High profile expats don’t give a good example: after four years...
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“It’s an immense disappointment,” so said Nice’s mayor Jacques Peyrat when the city failed to be shortlisted for the final selection process of a European Capital of Culture in 2013. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? As we wrote in our news columns before Nice’s proposal was tossed in the bin, the whole ECC circus bears some likeness, on a...
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