A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Marina from Riviera Home Finders in the South of France wishes you a glorious, splendid and worthwhile 2008!

Isle sur la Sorgue

The Marina Artists team just delivered the last painting of 2007 - a cute little house in Isle sur la Sorguel'Isle sur la Sorgue is a village in the Vaucluse. The river Sorgue (or "les Sorgues" as it has many branches) attracted a lot of fishermen. In the Middle Ages the agriculture developed by using the water of the river and the village grew and prospered.

Isle sur la Sorgue has preserved worthwhile things from the past, like the old church, l'église Notre Dame des Anges, that boasts beautiful 17th century baroque decorations.
And Isle sur la Sorgue has a famous Sunday-market for brocante and antiques that attracts people from all over the world. A lovely place, great to live in and definitely worth visiting...

View from Miramar

Isn't it stunning! (the view).... The Marina's are working so hard to get all those pantings for Riviera Home Finders finished before the new year that there is no time left to do some good bloggin'!! Luckily painting is one of the best things we can do with our time - and the subjects are worthwhile too! I hope to be back to you before the year ends, but just in case:

We wish you a very happy new year!

Tourrettes

The Marina artists team is delivering its Christmas paintings... Today's one is for a house in Tourrettes, a medieval village, close to Fayence and Montauroux, in the Var - and with a very Provencal look and feel...
This beautiful country house built in old stone, lies in the heart of a park with century-old olive-trees. It has all modern, great views and total peace and quiet. It is spacious has lots of light and breathes quality. Of course it has a lovely pool and that makes it suitable for receptions or a large family!

Painting in Fayence

Great house we sold - to be renovated - but it is the view that does it all, no matter what the house looks like....that's why I painted just that! The new owners can look at it from their busy place in England and know that there is a better life waiting for them...

Business Person of the Year II

Remember that I alerted you to the fact that Riviera Home Finders' top dog Richard Green was nominated for "Business Person of the Year" by the British Chamber of Commerce? Well, last saturday there was this Gala dinner where the winner would be announced and

Richard won!

There were 26 candidates, three of those were shortlisted: your/our votes helped, but the main criteria were things like "having a growing business" and "entrepreneurship" (but it must have been "originality" and "perseverance" and "ability to create a great team" as well!!!)

The judges were Stelios, the founder of EasyJet , Rob Rutter, President of Merrill Lynch and British Association of Monaco, Mike Lorimer, President of the British Chamber of Commerce and Paul Kavanagh and the Riviera Radio team. And they -unanimously - wanted our bossman to have the prize!

We are very very proud!! Richard is interviewed, photgraphed and asked for his signature all the time - let's hope he still has some time left for us, his humble co-workers... It was beautiful - and a great party, we were dancing until very very late... And now it's back to selling houses and making paintings.

Chateauneuf de Grasse painting

Hi there, long time no see! Been out painting, this one for instance, of a lovely very well-kept house in Chateauneuf de Grasse, that will be sold tomorrow by my colleagues Catherine and Jeroen. The new owners are a young family, with four children and two dogs! They live in England right now but are seriously considering moving permanently to France - the South of France to be more specific. They are thinking about trading in rain, fog and London traffic for view, sun, croissants and espresso in the morning, the mediterranean, bougainville... dif-fi-cult!!