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Category Archives: Weather
Drought in Southwest France
First, let me wish you a joyeux Quatorze Juillet. Today is la Fête Nationale in France and one of the most important holidays in the calendar. Today is sunny and hot. In previous years, we have been known to light … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged drought, Quatorze Juillet, rainfall, SW France, SW France weather, water restrictions
25 Comments
Five French Weather Phrases
The Brits have a reputation for talking about the weather. Hardly a surprise, since you can experience four different seasons in one day in parts of the UK. It was a surprise to us initially that French people also talk … Continue reading
Canicule: the Dog Days of Summer
It’s either a famine or a feast. We spent the winter and most of the spring grumbling about all the rain; now we’re taking refuge from the heat. Much of the northern hemisphere is experiencing unprecedented levels of heatwave: notably … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged canicule, dog days of summer, Dog Star, drought, heatwave, summer weather in SW France, SW France
23 Comments
Cuckoos and Winter Weather 2017-18
If you live almost anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, you don’t need me to tell you that it has been a dismal, gloomy winter. The technical reason, apparently, is a “heatwave” in the Arctic, which has pushed the Arctic Jet … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged rainfall, signs of spring, SW France, SW France weather, Weather statistics, winter, winter weather
10 Comments
All Aboard le “Moscou-Paris”
It sounds rather like a jolly luxury express, doesn’t it? A competitor, perhaps, to the Orient Express, with starched white tablecloths, gleaming silverware and sycophantic stewards. If only it were. In fact, le “Moscou-Paris” is the meteorologists’ nickname for a … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged Caylus, le "Moscou-Paris", record low temperatures, SW France, Tarn-et-Garonne, Weather, weather forecast, winter weather
18 Comments
The End of Summer
Autumn is now truly upon us. We have had some lovely, warm days recently, but as soon as the sun dips under the horizon the air cools quickly. Some mornings, the temperature has been close to 0 degrees C already. … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged autumn, autumn colours, climate, poetry, rainfall, Sully Prudhomme, SW France, SW France summer weather, wild mushrooms
14 Comments
Summer’s Lease Hath All Too Short a Date: La Rentrée
Yesterday, the summer holidays ended in France as children went back to school, people packed away their holiday gear for another year and workers prepared themselves for the routine of métro, boulot, dodo (subway, work, sleep). The eight weeks or … Continue reading
Posted in French life, Weather
Tagged autumn, autumn signs, canicule, heatwave, la rentrée, summer fêtes, Summer holidays, SW France
9 Comments
Can Spring be far Behind?
The literary-minded will notice that the title is a quotation from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ‘Ode to the West Wind’, written in 1819 while the poet was staying in Florence. The poem can be interpreted in various ways, the most simplistic … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged frost, rainfall, Shelley Ode to the West Wind, signs of spring, spring, SW France, Weather, winter weather
7 Comments
2017 Preview and 2016 Weather Roundup
Bonne année, Meilleurs Vœux. Wishing you a happy and peaceful year and a better one for the world in general. Welcome to Life on La Lune 2017. This is a particularly special year for me and the SF (Statistics Freak … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged 2016 weather, climate, drought, frost, rainfall, rural life, SW France, Weather, Weather statistics
8 Comments
2016 Summer Weather in SW France: the Verdict
Yesterday, we did one of our favourite walks. It takes in the ruined Château de Labro, and goes up and down the wooded slopes of the secluded Seye Valley. We walked under luminous blue skies with barely a cloud. There … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged climate, drought, Indian summer, rainfall, summer, SW France, Weather, weather patterns
5 Comments
Drought in Southwest France
We spent the first six months of this year complaining that we had too much rain. Now we’re complaining that we are having too little. It has barely rained for about six weeks and the weather has been dry, … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged drought, dry August, rainfall, rural life, summer, SW France, Tarn-et-Garonne, Weather
16 Comments
Summer Arrives at Last in SW France
C’est l’été and the weather has finally caught up with the calendar. We’ve had wall-to-wall blue skies and hot sunshine for the past few days. This was a particularly good thing this weekend, since we sang in a concert … Continue reading
Posted in French life, Weather
Tagged Abbaye de Marcilhac-sur-Célé, climate, Goldfinch, Marcilhac-sur-Célé, Mozart Requiem, rainfall, summer, SW France, Weather
8 Comments
Badgers in the Bush?
Like most people, we have a part of our garden of which we are less than proud. It’s where we dump grass cuttings, leaves and other garden rubbish that we don’t put in the compost bins. Fortunately, it’s shielded by … Continue reading
Posted in Nature, Weather
Tagged badgers, blaireaux, French wildlife, frost, nature, rainfall, rural life, SW France, Weather
11 Comments
Where Have All the Small Birds Gone?
Yesterday, we stopped by our retired farmer neighbour’s place for a chat. We remarked that it would be only a matter of weeks before the cuckoo, the first of the migratory birds, arrives. We love hearing that piping sound, which … Continue reading
Posted in Nature, Weather
Tagged birdlife, birdsong, climate, cuckoo, frost, migratory birds, nightingale, rainfall, SW France, swallow, Weather
15 Comments
Unwintry Winter
I took this shot of a red squirrel four years ago, in February 2012, when we had two weeks of temperatures well below zero and snow as well. Our lane was like an ice-rink, it took 10 minutes to warm … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged climate, frost, rainfall, snow, SW France, Weather, winter, winter weather
4 Comments
Bonne Année and December’s Weather
First, bonne année to everyone. I hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas. We are having a dry January – no, not the weather, which is the opposite. Rather, we’re not imbibing any alcohol, except the odd glass if … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged climate, France, Meilleurs Voeux, Mild December, rainfall, SW France, Weather
9 Comments
Sunflowers in November
There’s a French expression, “C’est un vrai temps de Toussaint” (it’s real All Saints’ Day weather). This means that the weather on November 1st is cold, damp, murky and unpleasant. And it often is. This year bucked the trend and … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged climate, frost, Monts du Cantal, November weather, Pyrenees, rainfall, sunflowers, SW France, Toussaint, Weather
15 Comments
SW France Summer Weather 2015
We had a great holiday on Corsica a couple of weeks ago. And it was a good thing we went then, because we had nice weather for the most part. One week later and it would have been quite different: … Continue reading
Preparing for Winter
This might seem a little premature. After all, we’re only in early September and it’s still summer officially. But heating these old stone houses has to be taken very seriously. The summers can be blisteringly hot here in SW France, … Continue reading
Posted in French life, Weather
Tagged boiler, central heating, firewood, Heating systems, SW France, Weather, winter, winter weather, woodburning stove
16 Comments
Weathering the Storm
August went out like a lion with one of the most damaging storms we have experienced for several years. The thunder and lightning were not especially violent, but the wind was, gusting up to 150 kph in places. We … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged climate, rainfall, storm, SW France, Tarn-et-Garonne, thunder, Weather, wind
10 Comments
Drought and Southwest France Weather July 2015
I have been reminded yet again this summer of how tough life must have been for the people who lived in our house up until the 1960s, when mains water was installed. Our property has two citernes (water-collecting cisterns) and … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged citerne, drought, foxes, Jean de Florette, Manon des Sources, Marcel Pagnol, rainfall, rural life, summer, SW France, water, Weather
2 Comments
Teysseroles Fête and SW France Weather June 2015
We scanned the weather forecast nervously during the 10 days leading up to our annual fête at Teysseroles, the 15th-century chapel we are helping to restore. The last thing we wanted was to have to put up a marquee, as … Continue reading
Posted in Places, Teysseroles chapel, Weather
Tagged chapelle de Teysseroles, fête de Teysseroles, rainfall, summer, SW France, Teysseroles, Teysseroles fête, Weather
4 Comments
Unwanted Visitors and SW France Weather May 2015
I stepped off the plane at Toulouse on Wednesday evening into a different season. During a brief business visit to London, it was chilly and blustery. Back in SW France, summer had suddenly arrived with temperatures well into the thirties … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged Chapelle de Teysserolles, climate, fête de Teysseroles, rainfall, summer, SW France, SW France weather May 2015, Teysseroles, Weather
10 Comments
Countless May Holidays and SW France Weather April 2015
May in France is a month when you can’t move for public holidays. There’s one a week: two historical and two religious. Then the next one isn’t until 14th July, la fête nationale. We were talking about it at … Continue reading
Cuckoos, Birdsong and SW France Weather March 2015
Bonnes Pâques à tout le monde. I had hoped to report the cuckoo’s arrival, but it’s dragging its heels (or whatever cuckoos have) this year. A friend 10 km to the south said it had arrived over a week … Continue reading
Posted in Nature, Weather
Tagged cuckoo, first cuckoo, frost, hoopoe, rainfall, spring, SW France, Weather, Weather in SW France March 2015
11 Comments
The Flood of the Century in Southwest France, 3-4 March 1930
On Saturday 1st March 1930, torrential rain started to fall on already saturated ground in Southwest France. Unseasonably high temperatures brought by southerly winds rapidly melted the thick mantle of snow that had fallen in late winter on the … Continue reading
Posted in History, Places, Weather
Tagged Adolphe Poult, crue du Tarn, Flooding, Moissac, Montauban, rainfall, River Aveyron, River Tarn, Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, SW France, Tarn flood of 1930
17 Comments
Signs of Spring and Southwest France Weather February 2015
The SF (Statistics Freak to the uninitiated) tells me that winter runs from November to February. Personally, I feel it’s longer than that, but it’s better not to argue with the expert. Even so, by the end of February, I … Continue reading
Posted in French life, Weather
Tagged climate, frost, rainfall, signs of spring, spring, SW France, Weather, weather in southwest France, winter, winter weather
6 Comments
Woodpeckers and Weather: January 2015 in Southwest France
This is the acrobatic great spotted woodpecker that manages to cling onto the fat balls we hang out during cold weather (the red splodge on its head marks it out as a male). We haven’t seen this for several years, so … Continue reading
Posted in Nature, Weather
Tagged climate, frost, Great spotted woodpecker, January weather SW France, rainfall, snow, SW France, Weather
8 Comments
Southwest France Weather Roundup for 2014
First of all, Happy New Year, Bonne Année. And a big thank you to the more than 45,000 visitors who came to my blog last year. The SF (Statistics Freak) has been slaving over a hot computer today so … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
Tagged 2014 weather in SW France, climate, France, frost, living in France, rainfall, SW France, Weather, Weather in SW France
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