300 days of Sunshine

It is a commonly heard boast, that many areas in the South of France enjoy over 300 days of sunshine per year. But is this such a great thing? After all, we have become acutely aware of how unpleasant a canicule (heat wave )can be . Moreover long droughts have left us in a precarious position with regard to water. Even today, in the middle of winter, our source(spring) is little more than a trickle. But sunny days in winter are a different thing altogether. At the moment we are enjoying a spell of sunny weather, with windless days and azure blue skies. It is perhaps in winter that I now most appreciate living in the South of France. Of course we get rain, and wind and sometimes even snow. But such days are forgotten quickly when the sun comes to stay for a while.

Today the sun shone all day, the skies were blue and there was very little wind. But this was no standard sunny day, such as one might enjoy in summer. The ground remained frost covered for our morning walk high in the forest. Moreover, now that the sun has gone down, it is very cold indeed. But nonetheless, it is days like this that I love the most.

Frost crystals on a wayside log, glitter in the sun.

What is it they say? "Make hay while the sun shines." So on Saturday, we decided to make the most of this sunny weather to enjoy a rare moment on our boat. Wind speeds promised to be very low , so that would be an added advantage. However, as we set out , we saw that the olive trees in our valley were surrounded by frost, and felt glad that we had brought warm clothes.

These are the ancient olive trees that had been uprooted from the old terraces and replanted here, as I wrote about in an earlier blog. They have put on new growth now, and perhaps next year they will bear fruit.

When we reached the boat, we decided to visit Mèze, where we once moored our old boat Njiva I. And what a beautiful day we had to cross the étang. The sky was blue, and the water like a mill pond. 19 km long, and 5 km wide, and yet all we encountered on the water was one small fishing boat and half a dozen cormorants. Such absolute peace.

When we reached Mèze we moored along the stone jetty . Whereas normally in summer this pier is chock a block with tourist boats, today it was completely deserted.

The harbour of Mèze is normally very busy. Of course all the permanently moored yachts were becalmed, and had to remain in port, but the usual motor boats, and the beautiful yellow catamaran that takes tourists on a tour of the oyster beds , were nowhere to be seen. However the restaurants were full, and after lunch people strolled up and down the harbour walls, as did we. So different from summer , when the sandy beach is full of families and swimmers. But today offered different pleasures. The sky was blue, and everything was reflected in the still harbour. It was such a perfect day.

Reflections

By four o'clock we were thinking of heading off. It was far too cold to spend the night on the boat, and we had to get back to our mooring shortly after sunset. Like all winter days it had been short, but exceedingly sweet.