This is why...
I live in the South of France.
12/28/20252 min read
One of the reasons I have chosen to stay here in the South of France, is simply...the sun! Not the fierce sun of summer that drives us indoors to seek cool shade. Nor the sun that bronzes our bodies. It is the sun of winter and early spring that I enjoy the most, for that is when it feels so utterly special. Twenty or thirty years ago, Pre Brexit days of course, British people were flocking to buy property here. In order to attract us to this region , local estate agents boasted that it enjoys over 300 days of sunshine a year. Well, I certainly haven't been keeping a tally, but in spite of the endless days of rain and solid grey skies that we have experienced recently , I would vouchsafe that this boast is indeed true.In fact, when I research our newly named region of Occitanie, this 300 days of sunshine a year would still seem to be headline news.
Of course, one down side of winter is that the sun arrives late and leaves early. But at least we have now passed the winter solstice, and things can only get better. This morning, the sun was just peeping above the trees above our house at 11.30 a.m.
There is nothing like a bracing walk in winter, when the air is cold and clear, and the outline of every hillside is bold and delineated.
But that's not all. For most of the summer we rarely, if ever, see the Pyrenees which rise to the south, because the summer air is moist and often hazy. However, in winter, when we are driving towards the coast ,or crossing the étang in our boat, we often spot the magnificent snow topped Mont Canigou and its surrounding Pyrenean hills. In the early spring of 2024 , we took the advantage of the calm seas to move our boat from Cap d'Agde to its new mooring on the canal near Frontignan. As I looked back towards the south, Mont Canigou was definitely there.
