It's All Gone - Well Nearly

One of the differences I can see in the winter weather down here is that when it snows, like it did on Thursday, it disappears pretty quickly (see picture and compare to Friday’s), unlike in the UK where it tends to lie for days if not weeks, thawing and freezing each day and night.

The deluge of white stuff kept us housebound on Thursday. I suppose we could have tried to go out in our 4x4 but we didn’t need to go into the village, so it wasn’t worth risking it. On Friday it had started to thaw and we ventured into the Midi and it was clear when we made it to the main road that there had been some real problems the day before. Cars were abandoned all over the place, even some 4x4s, trees littered the side of the road all the way into Tourrettes and it was deathly quiet – that is until we got to the Midi which was packed to the rafters. I don’t know whether this was because it was a Friday or whether people, who had been cooped up in their houses the day before, had decided that they should make a ‘go of it’ and head into the village.

Guy, of course, was constantly relaying the point of view that unlike the UK which he’s heard on the news grinds to a halt at the first sign of snow, the villages round here get to work immediately to restore things back to normal.

Certainly all the fallen trees and branches had been dragged off the roads and there were signs that bulldozers had been out moving the 8 inches of snow which fell, to the roadsides. It was remarkable that such a small community could sort itself out so quickly.

Some of the smaller roads, particularly those on hills, had been blocked off to prevent cars slithering off into oblivion but I did notice one thing - with all the house construction going on around the area, and small JCBs and mini-bulldozers used everywhere on building sites, they had all been utilized to clear the snow. Of course, the builders who operate these things will probably have asked for ‘zee bonus’ for doing something not in ‘zee contract’!

Anyway, after three days of thawing weather, all we’re left with now is a smattering of snow on the higher slopes and an attempt at a snowman on my upper terrace. Needless to say, everything is soaking but I’d rather have that than 8 inches of snow, no matter how pretty it looked.