The seasons are a changing

In the last two days I have experienced all the major weather cycles. It has been a crazy climatic weekend. Friday morning I woke up to torrential rain bucketing down and a white frosted sky. Not having an employer to account to (oh the joy), I decided to stay home and spend the morning writing and cooking for the dinner party we were having that night (and of course, go back to sleep for an hour listening to the rain on the sky light). On Friday I didn't leave the house all day, until the sun came out that afternoon, and I decided to go for a walk around the village.

Saturday morning was glorious, it felt like Spring had finally decided to pop in and greet us. I felt elated and compelled to go outside for a long walk, past the village market (which is weekly on a Saturday) and around my new neighbourhood. As I walked, and past all the friendly village folk, "bonjouring" as I went, I felt a smile permanently fix itself to my face. It is not a new realisation for me, I have known for a long time that the weather completely alters my mood, and a blue sky and sun on my skin inevitably means I will have a good day. I know it is probably not all together healthy to have my personality and outlook dictated by something as fickle as the weather man, but oh well.

My calmness and clarity that had come from a walk in the sun (also the much needed Vitamin D that it brought) stuck around, despite the sun not. By lunch time the frosting had reappeared and the sun had snuck behind the clouds like a shy little kid hiding behind her mother's legs. A light drizzle in the early evening and then another little smattering of sunshine at about 6pm (when I walked up to the Boulangerie in the village to buy some bread for a friend we were having dinner at that night.)

And then on Sunday morning the weather was crazy.We had been warned on Saturday night that Paris was expecting huge winds, and a friend even messaged us to say that there were going to be 100km winds coming up during the night and in the early morning. We latched up the shutters on all the windows (a thoroughly French thing to do) and fell asleep, but woke up several times during the night to a howling wind and thrashing trees. The frosted sky was alive and raging. When I came downstairs this morning I found that a window had blown wide open and all the papers and books in the study had been thrown around. It looked as if a hurricane had ripped through the house. Leaves and twigs were strewn around on the floor and papers danced in the air. I shut the window tight and spent the rest of the day indoors, in my pyjamas, reading, writing, and catching up on trashy (english) TV. What a day! I am thoroughly loving my days at home here, which I never ever get in Sydney.

The crazy storm lasted a few more hours. Apparently flights were delayed all over Paris. Our neighbour, Paul, popped around this evening, and we relished in how novel this crazy weather is, and how strange it is that we chose this year of all years to be here, when France had the coldest winter they had had in thirty years. Paul nonchalantly told us that this "crazy wind" happens regularly, and even weekly down south! I still think that we are witnessing a mad world of topsy turvy weather patterns, Global Warming, and all that politicized jazz.

The truth though is that one of the things I was most looking forward to about living in France for a year was the opportunity to experience all the seasons as they come and go. To really feel the bitterness of winter, the full covering of snow, the green and rebirth of Spring, the abundance and long Summer days, and then the slow cooling down and red leaves of Autumn. This is a real treat for someone who comes from Sydney and only ever sees Winter and Summer, two dichotomies without any real change in between. We even get all the same foods all year round. Aside from slightly less bikini clad tanned bodies roaming the streets, the city is essentially the same all year.

This weekend I felt Spring was close though, and it made me exhilarated. Even though I just said that it is so wonderful to see and feel the seasons, taste them, through the seasonal produce in the markets, and experience them as the days get longer and then shorter once again, blah blah blah..bring on Spring and Summer I say, and let the sunshine in. I am after all a tanaholic from Sydney, you know.

Merci,

Mel