REAL LIFE
Above leſt: The Castle Irish Pub in the village of Châteauneuf. Above right: Lewis’s daughter, Cassie, and grandson, Alfie, enjoy the swimming pool at the bastide
“It is easy to imagine you are in Italy when walking through the narrow, sunbaked streets”
Sangster, a detective who hunts missing children, will have been published. There is a book signing for
the series scheduled for Bastille Day at Niche Books, an English bookshop in the beautiful Provençal town of Valbonne. Local individuals, businesses, as well as the authorities, couldn’t have been more cooperative in helping to make the event happen.
HAPPY PLACE This brings me to the people I have met in and around Grasse. Everyone (well, almost everyone), has a smile on their face, which I put down to the weather, and not once has anyone been rude to me. I always start by speaking French, but people are usually very happy to continue in
English if they can (which is lucky, my kids think their dad’s French hilarious). There is a good expat community too, so you can walk into a pub on your own and within a few minutes people are talking to you like a regular. I have made some great friends by just popping in to watch the football or rugby and ending up chatting. Our local is The Castle, a
20-minute walk down the road to the neighbouring village of Châteauneuf. We also spend a lot of time in nearby Valbonne, where many English voices can be heard, leading me to initially assume a large UK expat community. However, while there are indeed plenty of Brits and Irish, a native explained to me that 72 different nationalities live in the town, and English is just the lingua
The beautiful village of Gourdon, ‘perched’ high above Châteauneuf
franca (no pun intended) used by the majority of them. The Italianate feel to this part
of the Riviera, all the way from the border town of Menton in the east to St-Raphaël and Fréjus west of the Estérel, is also very appealing, and not surprising given the region was part of Italy until 1860. Indeed, some place names are shown in French plus the original local Romanesque language, Ligurian, and it is as easy to imagine you are in Italy as France when walking through narrow, sunbaked streets in one of the region’s many and ancient ‘perched’ villages. Do I have any regrets about
From the rear terrace of Lewis’s home, looking out towards the Bay of Cannes 62 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: September/October 2023
the move? A few, but then again, too few to mention, as the song goes. Overall, Grasse suites my circumstances well, the climate and location are perfect for writing. My literary
project for the remainder of 2023 is a movie script, with work on the film itself due to start in the new year. By this coming January, therefore, I should have the time to send my sleuthing protagonist to his next destination. Perhaps this could be the Riviera, with Sangster investigating intrigue and skullduggery among the expats of Grasse. But regardless of where Jack goes, I’m hoping old Dennis Wheatley, wherever he is and whatever he is doing, will approve. ■
For more about Lewis Hinton’s work, visit
lewishinton.com
© LEWIS HINTON
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