From Dream To Reality

Life happens when you make other plans, says Cynthia Spillman, who has completed the renovation of her Nice apartment during the Covid pandemic

- Cynthia Spillman

When I wrote my last article (FPN May 2020) about realising my dream of purchasing a home in France, and the subsequent renovation of our house in Les Ponchettes, Nice, I could never have predicted what would come next, and to what extent our plans would be thwarted.

As the entire planet now knows, we’re in the midst of a Covid pandemic. When we left Nice in February, we had every intention of returning there a few weeks later to monitor the ongoing renovations. Little did we know that we wouldn’t be able to return for another 150 days, nor the mayhem we’d have to endure within that period of absence from Nice.

The first strike against us, was having to cancel all of our future trips to Nice. The second was that, shortly after the pandemic broke, I contracted the virus. I was extremely ill for weeks and, although it was deemed a mild case and no hospitalisation was necessary, I’ve never felt so ill in my whole life, and the hideous aftermath of the illness lingered for months. I was on a real rollercoaster emotionally and physically. Peter was a devoted nurse and fortunately didn’t catch the virus.

MOVING ON – AGAIN

It had become increasingly clear that we weren’t going to be able to rent out the house in Nice any time soon, because nobody could travel as a result of Covid. This could potentially have had catastrophic financial consequences for us, as we wouldn’t be able to start recouping the vast renovation costs we’d incurred by renting out the house as planned. So, on top of my illness, we made the decision to move out of our rented London flat and into a cheaper house in Hertfordshire.