The packing has carried on through the night with boxes mounting around us, the Apple Macs being the last boxes to fill….

During the packing some of the smaller members of our team were packed away making a calmer move possible : )

Our new phone number will be:
+33 (0)970 446 297

For anyone based on the French Riviera, the recent ‘chatter’ and gossip about THE new online lifestyle magazine soon to launch here on the Côte d’Azur has been gaining pace. Pure Design were first contacted back in December 2008 by Wayne Brown and his team regarding project assistance on the ‘machine’ we now know as FR2DAY.

Launching on 13th May in Cannes, FR2DAY is a sassy, punchy new online lifestyle magazine and is the sister magazine to the LA based LA2DAY. Written by locals and edited by top UK entertainment and showbiz writer Karen Hockney, it will carry information on showbiz, local talent, shopping, food, style, fashion, travel and what’s on from Monaco to Marseille.

Primarily aimed at the ex-pat Anglophone residential market on the Cote d’Azur, a French version will be launched later in 2009.

Pure Design are proud to be working with Wayne and his team at FR2DAY and hope the project proves to be a huge success.

This video really summed up one of my reasons for moving to France and how some people have REALLY bad days in the office – especially when it comes to computers!!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4a1z7NLnNk[/youtube]

If you’re spending over 50% of your time updating your website, creating marketing material and wasting time in the office on your PC, then its time to rethink your business. Using an external web design company or graphic design company to take care of all your marketing and advertsing needs takes the hassle out of life and you can rest assured that you are in the best of hands.

Based in Cannes, in the south of France, Pure Design International are an independant advertising agency specialising in website design, advertising and graphic design.

This is what one of our clients had to say about us:
We were looking for an english speaking webdesigner so we selected Pure Design to deal with our advertising when we arrived in France in August 2006. Pure Design dealt with everything relating to the launch of our new business from logo design, brand name, signage, website design and stationery. As advertising is very important to Eden we have entrusted this important work to Pure Design who ensure that we have the best possible advertising our budget can afford. As a business, we can fully recommend Ben who has looked after us so well.
Roy B. – Director – Eden Garden Design and Build

If you DO just have a bad day and end up wrestling with your PC, you may want to call Riviera IT Solutions afterwards!!!

One of the things about living in France people back home don’t always understand is that we don’t eat baguettes every day, we don’t use a nice Bandol Rosé wine as mouth wash and it isn’t always hot and sunny all year round. The months from November to March can bring some pretty dull, grey, wet, windy & generally naff ‘British’ weather to what is usually (and how most people relate to) a warm, nice place to live.

This brings with it sickness – the every day cold, bad chest, sore throat and flu, but this year a new strain of flu is making its way around the Cote d’Azur…..Man Flu!!!! An easy to catch, hard to shake, knee trembling form of flu that spreads fear into the heart of the every day nice guy!!!

The following report gives a few signs to look out for, and life saving tips if someone you know gets ‘Man-Flu’. Not suitable for young children.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EElqrgk4N0[/youtube]

What is the likelyhood of being ‘got’ by YouTube? I mean, everyone likes to google their own name and see what happens… I googled my name ‘Ben Collison’ and found myself on the Lancashire Evening Post Website. Other results brought up my website and others still made me out to be a t-shirt designer from San Francisco, a pro golfer from Marshalltown and I even found my name under the Coventry’s Criminal Past Book. I might be wrong but there may be more than one Ben Collison on this earth!!!

But videos are a little more worrying!!! I had been sent another ‘hillarious’ video on YouTube from a friend and decided to start searching for friends and family – the results were worrying!!! There I was playing golf BADLY last year in Mouans Sartoux and then again playing drums, aged 17 in a marqué in Preston.

I do have to say my old friend Dave singing Parklife was one of the highlights of that evening, even though I was wearing a dreadful waistcoat and had greasy curtained hair!!! I still don’t know who posted the video!!!

My two brothers were to blame for this one – and YES, it WAS a practice swing!!!!

So beware, with todays technology and people going camera mad you could find yourself listed on google, have your photo on myspace or even have your worst moments highlighted on YouTube….

Just for a bit of fun I thought I’d share my Chili Vodka recipe.

The first step in making chilli vodka is having access to several different types of chilli – nice colourful chilli’s such as Bolivian Rainbow, Hungarian Cherry, Jalapeño work best!

Take a tooth-pick and stab the chilli’s all over and place them in a good quality vodka.

Leave the bottle in the fridge for 3 days and then serve with a dash of tonic water and slice of lime.

To view more recipe’s or buy some rare chillis visit The Chilli Farm