As I’m British, it was only going to be a matter of time before I had to start talking about the weather, and talk about it I will because, right now, it’s raining.
Yep. This is going to be an actual post about rain.
A little while back I waxed lyrical about Montpellier’s 360 days of sunshine. Winter’s over so those pesky 60 days should be over too and it seemed so, it really did. After nothing but sunshine for the last few weeks and a beautiful weekend of frolicking around the Pont du Gard, I told Jono that I would now be living in shorts. Trouser time was officially over. Wahey. Leg party!
But right now I’m wearing jeans. And a jumper. For the last week it has done nothing but be grey and rainy. For the first couple of days I was all for it. I thought it would nice for the plants, since they get a bit dry down here, and for the streets; they could do with a wash as the whole clean-up-after-your-dog thing isn’t so popular round these parts. I also didn’t mind so much as it would give me a bit of time to do things at home without feeling the need to constantly wander the streets or have coffee in the sunshine.
Four days later it’s still raining and grey. While the weather forecast keeps changing its mind between ‘it’ll be better tomorrow’ and ‘nah-still crap’, the foreseeable future looks filled with unpredictable greyness and rain. The foreseeable future includes my wedding day and that was certainly not part of the plan.
We’d picked Montpellier specifically because it is unlikely to rain. With our last visit to the venue we discovered that they’d decided to start building a motorway right outside and noticed the rather loud sound of a jet flying directly over us indicating that we’re right in the flight path. So this rain thing, would be the icing on the cake and that, Alanis, would be ironic.
But anyway rain is rain. I’m used to it and I’ll deal with it. What is quite amusing though is watching the city disappear into itself. In Paris, they’re more like Londoners; they go about their day come rain or shine (albeit moaning about it either way) but here it’s sunshine or nothing. The streets are empty and the café owners just stand at their door staring longingly at their empty outdoor tables. Those chirpy bonjours have turned to grumpy bonblahs. Absolute chaos.
Earlier in the week I was having coffee with the lady who is making our macarons and she was telling me about her alarm-clock cat. Every day, bright and early, her cat wakes her up ready to go outside, get fed and start the day. But on day two of raingate, she woke up late at 10am and found the cat miserably staring at the window. These are difficult times for the cats of southern France.
Still, it’s good weather for blogging, even if it is a blog post about rain.