The Heavens have Opened...
...So what's the problem?
10/28/20243 min read
It was last Saturday afternoon. "Oh no," I groaned. " The rain is getting worse." The heavy rain of that morning had grown so intense that it fell in stair rods, bouncing off the paving stones of our patio, and filling buckets that happened to be lying around. Lightning raked the sky, while thunder echoed around the hills. So why was I so unhappy? After all, our source(spring) had shrunk to the tiniest of dribbles yet again, and we would soon be anxiously assessing our water reserves for the winter. So surely, we should have been delighted with all this rain. What was the problem?
It just so happened that we had seats reserved for a concert in Montpellier that evening. The super soloist in the Montpellier Orchestra, lead violin Dorota Anderszweska, was celebrating her 20th anniversary with them in the beautiful opera house. She was to be the chief soloist in Bruch's magical 2nd violin concerto, music which is very special to us. So perhaps you can understand my disappointment when we consulted the local weather forecast, and saw that heavy rain was set to continue well into the next day. Even worse , an orange alert had been issued for the whole region; flooding was expected; and roads had become hazardous. Sadly , we decided that we had to cancel. It was, as they say, 'sods' law.'
"But then, they also say " it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good." For sure enough, by the next day it had become apparent that all water worries in the region were off the agenda , certainly for the moment. When we parked our car under the cliffs at Gourgas for our customary Sunday walk, the whole valley was filled with a roaring sound . Three small streams converge in this valley to become the River Brèze, and each one was coursing down the hillside, cascading in waterfalls, and bursting their banks, . It was a wonderful sight. And though we are sad to have missed our concert, we do know that there will be another one coming up very soon.
This waterfall was completely dry last summer.
Looking from the old bridge.
After our customary weekend walk, we usually cross the river via the ford and head out of the village on the top road. Today, as you will see from the photograph, it was completely impassable.
Tomorrow the weather is set fair. We plan to head down to the boat for a final trip before the winter. It won't be a moment too soon. J. , who lives in the adjacent boat rang us to say that the canal is very full and that the mooring ropes for our boat are under a lot of strain. Fortunately he is a good neighbour and he has adjusted them for us. Let us hope we do not find that the rain has caused any more problems . It's all very strange. Apparently the Canal du Midi will be completely closed from the 6th November , the end of the current school holidays, because of the sécheresse(drought.) Up until now the water levels have been very low. I imagine that this recent rain will have been extremely welcome.
