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Snow! Snow! Snow!


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I don't mind it. But then, my youth was spent in the Alps where there is a lot of it.

When we'd walk to and from school (4 x a day), the snow on the pavements would come up to our knees, and it would stay 4 months of the year.

You'd have to pay me a lot of money to get me to ski, though! And I mean a lot! [:-))]

I remember driving with a friend to a summer job in 1978 and finding snow patches in the ditches in July!

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So you lot have had snow?  We've just had more than a bit of wind - as in Mistral !!

It started late afternoon yesterday, but nothing special for around here. Bad during the night, really bad first thing.

Juice went off at 07.30.  I went off to get bread etc an hour later. Massive tree down within 200m of where we live, power lines wiped out.  15km detour to get the essentials: juice off there too. Went down during the day to see how things were going with the clearup, Gendarmerie down there in force. Asked whether they thought that we'd be back on again today, to which the reply was the immortal "Normallement .............. oui".

If I say that my confidence in his reply was somewhat less than 10%, you'll get my drift.

Cooked something rough & ready on the Camping Gaz stove and fully expected no juice until midday tomorrow at least, when ............... hey presto, back on again at 20.30.

In all this, I have no criticism of ErDF: there are lines down all over the shop down here. They must have been working under arc lights to get us back up earlier this evening. Well done to them.     

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  • 1 month later...

Two such contrasting pictures from Clair and Norman.

Well, I guess, here in God's own paradise, we are somewhere in between![:)]

Had the first severe(ish) frost on Friday and yesterday which, however, soon disappeared as we had bright sunshine and brilliant skies.  Today, however, it's a total change:  mist, fog, damp (though not actually raining).

I was hoping to be able to have lunch in the nearby village where there is a vide grenier and brocante today but, alas, NO food!  Don't know what's happening, world's gone mad, how can there be any sort of  évenement with NO FOOD, and this is France?[8-)]

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Sweet, that is really surprising! not even a drop of vin chaud? I'm really happy that the vin chaud season has started; I had to have hot chocolate a couple of times this week, as there wasn't any available. I do love those hot chocolates on sticks! One of our sons loves them too, and they are on his Christmas wish list, which makes some of the Christmas shopping easy.

The wind mentioned by Gardian dropped yesterday, to such an extent that the restaurant where we ate lunch (inside!) lit their outdoor patio heaters by about 1pm; it had been too dangerous that morning and before that. All the tables inside had been booked ahead, or taken by early arrivals; the 8 or so outside were all taken when we left, plus a second sitting had taken the places of those who were quickest at eating and had gone. They also have shaped blankets on the chairs; it's quite funny to watch the reaction of new visitors, who think somebody has left their wooly pully. They also have sun hats ready for use - all mod cons!   [:D]

We've eaten several lunches outside on our very sheltered balcony, including today; I must admit I wore my boots and a little fleece, but it was very pleasant sitting in the sunshine.

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"hot chocolates on sticks", GG, what on earth are those?  OK, OK, I'm from the sticks (no pun intended) and not exactly au courant with anything whose origins are newer than last century but, even so, I wonder how the hot chocolate doesn't fall off the sticks?

No vin chaud but, chez nous, I did have a couple of glasses of merlot with lunch; just to keep the cold at bay, you understand.

Now I know lots of people who say that they never drink on their own.  To me, that's totally incomprehensible because I think it's lovely to drink on your own because then you could have as much (or as little of course [;-)]) as you wish as you don't have to share the bottle with anybody or indeed feel deprived if someone else finishes the dregs before you could get to them [:D]

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Right, Sweet, I'll try to describe them: they are square-ish blocks of chocolate of various sorts, such as dark, milk, with nuts etc, and come on a wooden spoon. So saying on a stick is a bit misleading. There are little diagrams on one side to show how you have to dunk it, leave it for a while to melt, then stir. Being me, I can't leave well alone and I stir from the first minute.

Here they are on the restaurant/shop's website:

http://www.enviedeterroirs.com/mag/en/list-107021.htm

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[quote user="Clair"]I don't mind it. But then, my youth was spent in the Alps where there is a lot of it.

When we'd walk to and from school (4 x a day), the snow on the pavements would come up to our knees, and it would stay 4 months of the year.

You'd have to pay me a lot of money to get me to ski, though! And I mean a lot! [:-))]

I remember driving with a friend to a summer job in 1978 and finding snow patches in the ditches in July!

[/quote]

 I too remember wading through snow drifts to school as a boy .. In short trousesrs...  and getting frost bite !   Today it would be called  "Child Abuse " 

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[quote user="gardengirl "]Right, Sweet, I'll try to describe them: they are square-ish blocks of chocolate of various sorts, such as dark, milk, with nuts etc, and come on a wooden spoon. So saying on a stick is a bit misleading. There are little diagrams on one side to show how you have to dunk it, leave it for a while to melt, then stir. Being me, I can't leave well alone and I stir from the first minute.

Here they are on the restaurant/shop's website:

http://www.enviedeterroirs.com/mag/en/list-107021.htm


[/quote].

 

Ooh yes, GG, they look just the thing for an authentic chocolate drink.

Also, couldn't help but notice the berlingots as I love their shape.

BTW, I thought of you a couple of nights ago when there was a programme (2 actually over 2 nights) presented by Sian Williams called "Goodnight Britain".  It's about insomnia and how to cure it!

I guess one of your chocolate drinks would do just as well as all the gadgets and suggestions that were featured!

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Short trousers Frederick? They used to come down to the knees and then the thick socks, would come up to the knees. Only bit exposed would have been the knees and they would have been covered by that gabardine mac wouldn't they. That is how I remember it, although being a girl. AND we girls didn't have tights when I was a girl, they were not in the shops in the 50's and early 60's*, so we had skirts, also to the knees, and then short socks, so really the boys were better off than the girls.

Must have saved families a fortune having boys knees exposed to the elements, I realised when my boys would put their knees through within days of getting new trousers. And I would patch, neatly with knee patches, and they'd hole them too, but as I could never have kept up financially with this regular damage to their clothes it was the only way.

 

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LOL! Idun, you've sparked a memory...I was reminded, too, by one of my boys only a few weeks ago. My personal contribution to (threatened, never actioned) child abuse was telling them both that, should they put holes in the knees of their school trousers one more time, I would patch them with a nice floral print and make them wear them to school.

It did no good, BTW, but I felt at the time that it was worth a try...

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