Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year to all!

From Côte Abode

A dance around Cocteau's villa

The Villa Santo Sospir is one of those extraordinary finds one stumbles on in life if you are lucky.  Once the summer house of wealthy socialite  (and patron of the arts) Francine Weisweiller, Cocteau arrived at his friend's St Jean Cap Ferrat villa in 1950 and was immediately enchanted.

Over the course of a decade Cocteau proceeded to decorate (or tattoo as he described it) the walls, the ceilings, lampshades, the cupboards ... in fact anything he could lay his paintbrush and pens on.

As breath-taking as the view is from the house (perched delicately on the St Jean peninsula), the house itself is the real treasure. The walls are covered in the beautiful free-hand art of Cocteau. The interiors are a jumble of old furniture, bric-à-brac, photos and the odd sketch by Picasso. A glass cocktail cabinet stands open with rows of bottles. The old iron-wrought beds are made-up with starched worn linen. Leopard-print carpet designed by Cocteau lines the staircase to the lower floor. 

Everything is as if it were yesterday, with Cocteau and his friends enjoying summers on the terrace and a dip in the sea below. It's a dance back in time and a rare dance at that. 

French Riviera beaches

Beach life the egalitarian way on the Côte d'Azur

The topic 'beaches' seems to be a popular subject for readers of this blog. So since it is August, what better time for an update.

The Côte d'Azur is fortunate to have a stretch of coastline that meanders from wild rocky coves to golden sand. Having just returned from a holiday in Italy where almost the entire Ligurian coastline is organised in regimented beach huts and sun-beds, there is something appealing and free about coming back to the French Riviera. Maybe it is a hang-over from France's ethos of égalité, but there certainly seems to be more of an attitude that the beaches are for everyone, not just for those who will pay.

Two sides: Private and public at St Jean Cap Ferrat

Of course, if you want private beaches then the Côte d'Azur has plenty. From the hip Hi Beach in Nice (for the young and chic) to Paloma at St Jean Cap Ferrat (for the ... well, young and chic), to Bâoli in Cannes and Pampelonne in St Tropez, plage privée is a staple of life here. Private beaches start from around €20 (Nice's Plage Opera is one of the least expensive) and then rise steeply depending on the chic -metre. Count on around €30-40 per day for the sunbeds etc and then add food on top.

Beach beds in a row, St Jean Cap Ferrat

Private beaches have advantages. The private beaches along the Nice coastline tend to be sandy (having trucked in tonnes of sand just before the season). The rest of us have to develop hardened feet to cope with the stony public beaches of Nice, Beaulieu, St Jean et al. The private beaches have restaurants and bars on tap.  We bring picnics. In all honesty, we look upon the private beach dwellers as a bit sissy. What's a few stones?, we say as we hop over the blazing pebbles. If we really want moules marinière we can gatecrash their restaurants.

Sunset Plage Passable, St Jean Cap Ferrat

Plage Passable at St Jean Cap Ferrat is one of my favourite beaches. As the beautiful people lie back on sun-beds on one side of this small cove, the locals monpolise the other side. Stones are just part of the pleasure. We splash around in the sea, dive from the concrete pier, probably make too much noise, laugh too loudly, and bring our own food. They look over at us with envy - or at least I think that is what that look is.

So Vive Egalité! And remember, jellyfish sting everyone.

The pick of the best public beaches on the Côte d'Azur

St Tropez - it requires a short walk, but Plage des Graniers is a pretty cove surrounded by pine trees.

Cannes - Plage de L'Abreuvoir. Sandy and relaxed

Antibes - Plage de la Gravette. Town beach, easy to get to and wide so plenty of space

Nice - The best Nice city beaches are grouped near the Port and Hotel Negresco centre of town. Stoney but good for a dip after a hot day.

Villefranche - entirely public and more fine gravel than stone

Beaulieu - La Petite Afrique. low-key family beach

St Jean Cap Ferrat - Plage Pasable or the public beach next to the entrance to the SJCP Port

Eze - stony but generally not too crowded

Roquebrune Cap Matin - rocky, difficult to get to (you need to walk some distance) and where Corbusier built his beach 'cabanon' (beach house). Perfect.

2013 COTE d'AZUR

A good year ahead on the French Riviera

There are many reasons to feel happy about living on the Côte d'Azur. However, sometimes I feel those of us who live here all-year round simply take it for granted. So, in the spirit of starting the year with positive thoughts, here are a few of my favourite things about Nice and the French Riviera generally.

• Blue skies. We have around 300 days of sunshine a year
• Sitting outside in mid-winter at a beach-side restaurant having moules and frites and drinking rosé
• Every day seeing the Mediterranean sea from my terrace.
• Coco beach in Nice - for afficionados only because of the rocks but the best place to sunbathe in the city
• Driving along the Grande Corniche in an open-top car - the route of Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief
• A walk along the beaches and coastline of St Jean Cap Ferrat
• Knowing my local boulangerie bakes the best bread in the world in a wood-fired oven every day
• Driving to Italy for the market at San Remo and having lunch
• A swim at Villefranche in September when the crowds and jellyfish have gone
• Going to the Cannes Film Festival and not being a tourist
• Catching the tram to the market at Liberation in Nice - the best market in town
• Going to the opera/ballet/classical concert in Monaco as if it were an everyday event
• Enjoying not going to supermarkets for shopping - every day
• Being able to wear summer clothes for around 9 months of the year (and also never feeling over-dressed. A girl can never have enough sparkle here)
• The warmth (and wildness) of people who live here 

I could add many more things about living here but a list has to stop sometime. 

Happy NEW YEAR from the Côte d'Azur.

Joyeux Noël
Happy Christmas
From Côte Abode

Blue skies over the Côte d'Azur

What is in store for the French Côte d'Azur property market this Autumn-Winter 2012?

Returning home to Nice from a trip to the UK this week I had one of those moments. (In fact, I have these 'moments' quite frequently.) The plane flew low over the sparkling Mediterranean sea. As I glimpsed the Promenade des Anglais and the terracotta roof-tops below, I felt overwhelmingly happy.

As artists from Matisse to Picasso and many many more appreciated, the light of the South of France has a quality that seems especially magical after the grey skies of Paris, London, or other Northern cities. It lifts the soul. You actually feel spiritually (and physically) lighter as the coat is discarded and the dark glasses take up their familiar place over the eyes.

But what has light and sunglasses got to do with the property market? Well, in these rather grey and grim global times a touch of blue sky optimism can't be a bad thing. 

A market divided

There is no doubt, even the protected Côte d'Azur has been knocked back this year. Less buyers, less sellers, a change of government, a schizophrenic Euro situation, less credit available and less properties of quality have all combined to make life hugely difficult. Ask an agent and they will typically tell you that all is just fine. Ask a Notaire and they will give you a more honest opinion based on transactions (down and continuing to fall now we hit winter). Some are doing better than others, but some are struggling. (One notaire told me that if it weren't for sales of private garages she would be really worried about her income.)

The reality is, however, that the French Riviera property market contracts and wobbles but doesn't collapse. The majority of sellers and buyers in these current circumstances will bunker down and wait, and wait and.... 

But how long should one wait? I have clients holding off until next year, while others are leaping in now wanting to grab 'a bargain'.  But quality and stock being limited, bargains are not easy to come by. My biggest fear is that  we are in  a prolonged period of unrealistic expectations on both sides - the buyers who want  too much of a drop and the sellers who won't move on silly prices for average abodes. This always ends in a predictable stale-mate.

From bijou to luxury 

An unscientific poll of the notaires and agents that I know reveals that the slowest sector of the market at the moment without a doubt is the €500,000 to €1 million range (which is effectively a large apartment on the French Riviera). Traditionally this budget attracted both French and overseas' buyers. With an absence of both, this tier has flat-lined.

So what is moving? Smaller investment apartments - studios and one bedrooms - in cities like Nice and Cannes continue to attract cash buyers with an eye on rental return plus the desire to own a bolt-hole in the sun. It is perhaps not moving as quickly as in the past but this sector continues to be within the reach of more buyers.

The other level  - perhaps surprising, perhaps not -  is the high-end luxury property market. As one nationality falls away (British, Americans, Italians...) another is waiting to step in - Australians, South Africans, ex-pats from the Middle East and Asia, and of course the Russians (who never go away). Many rich have remained rich, or got richer. Prices have become negotiable and this makes the Côte d'Azur more appealing than ever. 

Where once an apartment in St Jean Cap Ferrat seemed unattainable, it now looks possible if you have a million or two. Slightly higher up the luxe pecking order, the historic waterfront property Palais Maeterlink on Cap de Nice sold this year for 48 million euros to a billionaire Czech property developer. Who knows what he would have paid if times had been better. The point is the big spenders are still spending. The plans for Maeterlink are to turn it into luxury apartments. Seizing the moment will, the hope is, beget future returns a hundred-fold (or a million-fold).

And next year?   
Hollande's latest backtrack (and we knew these were coming - indeed, had to come) is to reduce capital gains tax on second homes and rental properties by 20 percent for next year. It's a one-off concession for 2013, but if it is passed as law it will offer a little hope to kick-start a sluggish market.

Whatever people's fears are for the future, the Côte d'Azur at the moment seems to offer a chance to buy in to an area that might not be so affordable in a few more years once the property cycle has come full circle again. 

Would I buy now? Yes I would, but carefully and at the right price. Light can be blinding and play tricks, hence the need for dark glasses and common sense in this market.

For information and assistance on buying on the Côte d'Azur, please contact us 
home@coteabode.com. or visit our website www.coteabode.com.

Slow shopping in Nice

Nothing is more tantalizing than a local French market on the Côte d’Azur

One of the first things I do when I visit a new place is to check out the local market. I have to say a recent trip to Barcelona left me disappointed. Rather a lot of salt cod and tired fruit and vegetables. Maybe it was a bad day, but it didn’t bring out the usual cook in me.

By contrast, coming home to Nice on the French Riviera was an inspiration. Sometimes you need to leave home to appreciate home.

Saturday morning I grabbed my shopping bags (I know that I should paint a scene of Provençal wicker baskets here, but as locals we use plastic reusable Carrefour supermarket bags) and headed for our very local, local market.

Every day, except Mondays, stalls set up outside the church square in our neighbourhood, St Roch in Nice. It’s a small city market but it has everything you could want in the way of fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables. It’s a pleasure taking the time to shop like this. The stall owners all want to know what you are cooking, offer their opinion and recipes and always throw in for free fresh bunches of basil, parsley and some lemons.

Glorious food 

There are bigger markets in Nice such as the Cours Saleya in the Old Town (we leave it to the tourists for most of the year, especially the summer) and at Liberation (a fabulous huge Niçoise market). But we are spoilt having this little one our doorstep. This Saturday I headed home with baby aubergines, sweet tomatoes, glorious peppers (perfect for making the traditional Provencal dish of legumes farci), rose-tinged garlic, fresh salad, roquette, melons, nectarines, flat white peaches (to be eaten immediately with great greedy slurping noises), local olive oil … with, of course, armfuls of the ubiquitous heaven scented basil for a pesto feast.

The local butcher is another stopping off point. Seats are placed around the counter as you need to wait and chat, and wait and chat. That’s how it is done here. Slow food at it’s best. The outdoor farm chicken I picked out, although thankfully dead, still needed its head and feet cut off, and insides removed (and given to me separately for pâté or to enrich a sauce). The remnants of feathers were then blow-torched. Seasoned inside and out with Provençal herbs and trussed, I finally had my prize.

Then there is the boulangerie … but you get the picture. By 12ish you are home having spent 2 hours or so doing the food shopping (3 if you stop for an espresso) and are ready to cook lunch.

The phenomenon in the UK, US and other Anglo countries of farmers’ markets doesn’t happen here. Every market in Nice is a farmers’ market of sorts. It is a way of life in the South of France, even in the cities. It’s a manner of shopping that takes time and couldn’t be more enjoyable. If you are visiting the Côte d’Azur, there will be a market near you, so please do get up early, grab your plastic carrier bag and check it out.

For information and help buying property on the Côte d'Azur, contact us on home@coteabode.com

website www.coteabode.com