Yes folks, I’m officially on holiday. Though many of you will probably think I’m on holiday all year round (quite understandable), for me it’s rather special as this will be my first “real” holiday in six years! To mark this momentous occasion I’ve painted my toenails red and shall be wearing shorts all through the month of August. Divine. And of course, I shall be taking my holidays where I went for my honeymoon (yes, I’m an old bride) as it’s simply gorgeous - the French Riviera.

What’s more, I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way - 35,000,000 tourists visiting this region (Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur) every year must think so too looking at recent statistics.  And PACA doesn’t just attract tourists - students too are lured here. Astonishingly it is the third largest student community in France with six universities, some fifteen engineering schools, 10,000 researchers and 150,000 students while a further 185,000 young people pursue their education in 177 state secondary schools and 93 private secondary schools and 35,000 young people are enrolled in apprenticeship training centres. Sun, sea and scolarships eh?

But the Cote d’Azur is aiming still for higher stakes as it looks towards becoming France’s European Capital of Culture in 2013. This is a much-prized award and it only has two years to put together an original and creative plan to beat the competition. AMB Cote d’Azur may be just a tiny speck in the great scope of things but it gets my vote.

And those of you wondering where I’m going for my hols - why, my own back garden of course in Chateauneuf-de-Grasse; I might be on holiday but there’s a new website to get up and running!

While Belgium, Holland, the UK and Northern France are slowly submerging under buckets of rain and there’s talk of building a second Ark, us lot down here are sweltering under a torrid heatwave. Temperatures just keep on soaring and it’s forecast to get even hotter. 

South-Eastern Europe seems the worst hit, though there are also forest fires in Greece and Italy. Mind you, one French meteorologist, who didn’t give his name, stated that this type of phenomenon only occurred every 20 years. We should be so lucky.

However, there’s a phenomenon that occurs here every summer: the stars come out and play. Jack Nicholson and his daughter Lorraine were seen down in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, David Beckham cycling around the Var, Rod Stewart and his wife Penny were spotted in various towns along the coast while Naomi Campbell and Karl Lagerfeld were seen looking cool in St Tropez.

July is also the favoured month when Jazz and world musicians descend upon the Côte d’Azur: Lionel Richie, Peter Gabriel, Diana Ross, Cesaria Evora, Marcus Miller, Jeff Beck, John Mayall, Keith Jarrett, and many, many more talented people come to enchant and enrich our souls.

While Northern Europe is inundated with water and Southern Europe glutted by torrid heat, we are awash to the sound of music.   

Today my friend Rosie (from Los Angeles) and I went and explored the French Riviera. Rosie is over here for ten days which is great and means I can show her some of the places I’ve been raving about both on the website and in my blog. When we got to Eze she realised why I’d run out of words to describe this beautiful region of France: it really is simply more than a bunch of just nice adjectives.

After a BBQ at our place I then took her to St Paul de Vence. This place is truly gorgeous - in fact, it’s so gorgeous that it’s the third most visited place in France with 2.5 million visitors a year. Today we were one of them. It is hard to describe the French Riviera but it really has to be seen to be believed. I’m not sure my blog helps. In fact, I’m not even sure my present website does. Hopefully my new website will do it justice. Seen through eyes different to my own, I find so many facets of this fascinating region that I’d overlooked, missed or simply did not notice. I may need glasses . . .

Mind you, yesterday I didn’t need any glasses. As Nigel and I left our local supermarket our attention was drawn by a young man waving a rather large brown butterfly net around a tree. Now, normally, I am quite a reserved sort of individual and far too embarrassed to ask “Monsieur, what are you doing?”. But yesterday I must have been braver than usual and did ask. He was catching ladybirds - but not any old ladybird; he was after the Harlequin.

It seems that this evil, quite vorous, ladybird is now amongst our midst - tragically from the United Kingdom (hearing this I continued to speak French for fear he might find me the culprit) - and preying on our nice ladybirds that we have all come to love. In fact, it appears that once it runs out of aphids, it then starts eating other invertebrates such as ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings, butterflies and so on. All very nasty and unpleasant. Naturally I didn’t have my camera with me (I was only going shopping after all) - hence no photo of this dynamic young chap.

It seems that, originally, the Harlequin was introduced from Asia into North America for biological control of aphids on crops. Having swept across the US, it has now reached Europe and currently roams Belgium and France. Recently it has added the French Riviera to its invasion list.

Listening to what he said, I couldn’t help but make a connection. Didn’t Australia do roughly the same thing with Cane toads in 1935 when they introduced them to eat the larvae of the French’s and the Greyback Cane Beetles?

Note 26th February 2008: Since first writing this blog last year a recent news item caught my eye concerning killer ladybirds reported for the first time in Scotland. Click here to read further.