The Toussaint holidays. Schools break up on Saturday the 17th of October and go back on Monday the 2nd of November. For two weeks the morning roads are easier again, families slip away for a few days and the museums and parks fill up on weekdays. If you have a child in a French school, this is the first proper break of the year. Believe me, it comes round faster than you expect.

The clocks go back. In the early hours of Sunday the 25th of October, three in the morning becomes two. I always enjoy the extra hour of sleep and always miss the hour of evening light. From that week the sun sets before most people have left work and the apéritif quietly moves indoors.

The first real rain. Autumn here often brings what the French call an épisode méditerranéen: a great deal of rain in a very short time, usually over the hills behind the coast. Most years it passes with nothing worse than a flooded road or two. Occasionally it does not. Storm Alex, on the 2nd of October 2020, did lasting damage in the Roya, Vésubie and Tinée valleys and nobody here has forgotten it. Météo-France colours each department green, yellow, orange or red according to the risk and when the Alpes-Maritimes goes orange (vigilance orange), I take it seriously: move the car off low ground, stay away from flooded roads and save the drive inland for another day.

What I find fascinating about Valbonne is that, unlike almost every other hill village here, it was planned. Most grew lane by lane around a castle or a church. Here, in 1519, the monks of Lérins who owned the land decided to bring the valley back to life and laid out a new village on a grid: straight streets about four metres wide, crossing at right angles. Five centuries later the plan is still there. It is one of the reasons the village is so easy and so pleasant to walk.

The abbey came first. Monks of the Chalais order settled here in 1199 and their Romanesque church, finished around 1230, is now the parish church at the top of the village. They chose the spot partly for their sheep, which came down to winter in the Brague valley.

Everything comes back to Valbonne's own Place des Arcades, built in the early seventeenth century and listed as a historic monument. The market, the cafés and most of village life happen under or around its arcades and it is where I'd start any visit.

Valbonne also has a character of its own. Sophia Antipolis, the technology park created on its land in the 1970s, brought engineers and researchers from all over the world and many of them stayed. With several international schools close by, you will often hear English at the next table. For anyone moving here from abroad, I think it is one of the easiest places on the coast to settle in.

Our Sundays still start at the flea markets, and the earlier we go the better the finds. October mornings are colder now, so we bundle up in layers and shed them one by one as the sun comes up, and the morning slips away among the stalls.

When I want a change of scene, I'd head for the Cap d'Antibes and the coastal path, the sentier de Tirepoil. In August I told you to start early because there is no shade on it. In October you can walk it at any time of day: the sea on one side, the rocks underfoot and the light already softer by mid-afternoon. Allow about an hour and a half one way, then come back along the Chemin des Douaniers past the villas. The path closes in rough weather, so check before you go.

Afterwards I like to stop at La Petite Plage, on the Plage de la Garoupe, right by the water, for a cup of tea, or on the warmer October days something a little more refreshing. It's been under renovation, so check it's open before you set off.

On the Sundays we stay closer to home, our walk is along the Brague in Biot: peaceful, shaded and after the first rain the river is running again.

• Sat 17 Oct

  Saint-Laurent-du-VarFête des vendanges et châtaignes in the old village.

• Sun 18 Oct

  Saint-Paul-de-VenceFête des vendanges et des châtaignes, Place de Gaulle.

• Sun 18 Oct

  TanneronFête de la châtaigne, in the hills better known for their mimosa in February.

• Sat 24 Oct

  SaorgeFête de la châtaigne, in the village stacked on the rock above the Roya. See my picks above.

• Sun 25 Oct

  ValdebloreFête des châtaignes, high up between the Tinée and the Vésubie.

• In November

  Antibes and CagnesThe coast catches up later: the Safranier quarter in Antibes on the 7th of November, Cagnes-sur-Mer on the 15th of November.

October is a good month to hunt. The summer visitors have gone, the second homes closed up in September have emptied onto the tables and the mornings are cool enough to walk the stalls properly. My advice, from someone who is still not a natural early riser: dress for the start. At seven in the morning in October, a brocante is colder than it looks. À ÉCRIRE PAR HERVÉ : your own October advice, in one or two sentences.

• Every Mon

  Brocante du Cours Saleya, NiceThe 12th, 19th and 26th of October. The east end of the Cours, professional; the good pieces go early.

• Every Tue

  Brocante professionnelle, AntibesThe 13th, 20th and 27th of October, Place des Martyrs de la Résistance.

• Sun 1 Nov

  Antiques and brocante, ValbonnePlace des Arcades, first Sunday of the month, from six in the morning. Fifty to eighty dealers under the arcades. It is a real mix: some genuinely good antiques and about 30 percent of the stalls are clothes, for babies as well as adults. See the village of the month.

• Sundays

  The village vide-greniersOften where the best finds are. Dates move, so check the noticeboard outside the mairie before you go.

Chestnuts. At every fête you'll find them roasted in paper cones and they taste of autumn. At home they are simple: score them, roast them in a heavy pan and eat them warm with a glass of red.

Mushrooms. Cèpes and other wild mushrooms appear on the market stalls and on menus in the hill villages, often cooked simply with garlic and parsley. Picking your own is a local passion. My only rule: eat nothing that someone qualified hasn't checked. Many pharmacies here will still look over your basket for you.

Daube. The daube niçoise, beef cooked slowly in red wine, comes back on the menus as soon as the evenings cool. In Nice the leftover sauce traditionally goes into the ravioli, which to me is the best part.

Inland, the game season. Hunting reopens in the autumn and in the arrière-pays you will often see civet de sanglier, wild boar stewed in wine, chalked up on the board.

Plant trees, shrubs and hedges. The old French saying is À la Sainte-Catherine, tout bois prend racine: by Saint Catherine's day, the 25th of November, every cutting takes root. On this coast many gardeners start a month early.

Finish the bulbs. Narcissus, anemones and ranunculus can still go in now. Tulips wait until November, once the ground has cooled.

Look at the olives. Some people pick green olives in the autumn for curing. The harvest for oil comes later, in the winter.

Re-sow a tired lawn and cut back the watering. With the rain and the cooler nights, most gardens need far less than they did in September.

The calendar. Buying in France happens in two stages: the compromis de vente, then the final deed at the notaire, usually around three months later. A private buyer of a home has a ten-day cooling-off period after signing the compromis. So a buyer who finds the right house in October will very often take the keys in January or February. For the international buyers I work with, that timing matters: the tax year, the school term, when to move the family. I always suggest thinking about it now rather than in December.

See a house in its true light. October is the best month to view a property. The first rain reveals what summer hides: how the garden drains, whether the drive stays passable, any damp in a north-facing room. The low sun shows which rooms will still get light in winter. If you are buying, I'd always try to see the house once in the rain.

Ask about the heating. The DPE, the energy rating every listing must show, tells you only part of the story. A winter electricity or fuel bill tells you the rest, so I always ask to see one. Many houses on this coast were built for the summer, and it is worth knowing how they feel in January.

For sellers. The buyers who came back in September are still looking and they are serious. A home that has not found a buyer by Toussaint often waits until the market picks up again in the new year, so if you are planning to sell this autumn, I'd aim to be on the market before the holidays rather than after.

Planning a move, or wondering what your home is worth? Write to me through the property page or come and have a coffee at the Valbonne office.