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| Dawn at our hotel in La Clape this week | |
Anyone who doubts the reality of climate change will have had their confidence further shaken by the weather this summer. The violent contrasts of highest ever summer temperatures in Europe and catastrophic floods from storms, together with fast-melting glaciers, show more than seasonal fluctuations. One swallow does not make a summer, and - I know - neither does one drought, but I'm not the only person who feels helpless at the lack of serious policy change anywhere, with politicians in places like the UK still running after new oil exploration and putting off again and again the vital steps towards curbing global warming.
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| Temperature variations since 1900, from Midi Libre What we are learning to do is to use French tv more. The satellite
reception from the UK has been ropy over the summer, and our new French
fibre wifi makes tv reception from French channels much easier, so we
are taking the chance to improve our understanding of spoken French.
This will take a while, at the speed people naturally speak at, but it
is bound to improve. That is our hope anyway! Of course, our interest
in sport has helped - good coverage of cycling (the Tour of Britain this
week which included a day around Sherwood Forest where we could try
and spot landmarks familiar from our Notts days) on road, track and
cross-country. The World Championships were a highlight, and we were
delighted to see Tom Pidcock succeeding in them as well as in the Tour
de France earlier in the year. Now we are looking forward to a lot of
rugby, which will be well-covered here since France is hosting the whole
thing, even if les Bleus don't do well; I expect they will, unlike England which seems to have hit a rugby trough. Nearly 2 months of coverage...  Where
drought is concerned, some French communes locally have been without a
piped water supply for a while, and we have noticed the town supplies
have been reduced in pressure. Although the restrictions locally are
less severe than in other areas of the south, you aren't supposed to
water gardens or fill swimming pools though lots of people still seem
to...  September
is a birthday month not just for us but for many friends in France and
elsewhere. We enjoy the various Virgo celebrations in our circle, often
linked to the wine tasting we enjoy. It is also in the middle of what
is now a rarity in our lives, a series of visits from friends and family
that started earlier in the summer when all three sons, and a nephew,
came to stay for short periods; this month we have a visit from a friend
of very longstanding from the UK, and next month Kentucky friends will
be spending time in a nearby gîte so we'll have plenty of their
company. All of this is really lovely - when we first came here we had
lots of visitors, then a period when our B&B was fairly active, but
recently what with Covid and Brexit it has been quieter. |
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| Temperature variations since 1900, from Midi Libre Where
drought is concerned, some French communes locally have been without a
piped water supply for a while, and we have noticed the town supplies
have been reduced in pressure. Although the restrictions locally are
less severe than in other areas of the south, you aren't supposed to
water gardens or fill swimming pools though lots of people still seem
to... September
is a birthday month not just for us but for many friends in France and
elsewhere. We enjoy the various Virgo celebrations in our circle, often
linked to the wine tasting we enjoy. It is also in the middle of what
is now a rarity in our lives, a series of visits from friends and family
that started earlier in the summer when all three sons, and a nephew,
came to stay for short periods; this month we have a visit from a friend
of very longstanding from the UK, and next month Kentucky friends will
be spending time in a nearby gîte so we'll have plenty of their
company. All of this is really lovely - when we first came here we had
lots of visitors, then a period when our B&B was fairly active, but
recently what with Covid and Brexit it has been quieter. |
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| Lunch with Krys in Montpellier |
I have struggled with layout on this post, sorry but the content is all there, so make of it what you can - Google is having an off day.
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