Frosty the charentaise snowman

Meet Frosty - he may seem like a pretty feeble snowman compared to UK efforts but I can tell you that getting even a sprinkling of snow in the Charente is a big deal.

Airports, roads and schools were closed for a couple of days and my property viewing schedule ground to a halt.  It's no joke trying to navigate some of these rural French roads when your car is trying to audition for a guest slot on Dancing on ice.

One of the reasons we chose to live in the area around Cognac is the fact that it's the second sunniest part of France, after the Cote d'Azur.  I can't remember the exact figures but think that it gets around 2,400 hours of sunshine a year on average.

Well monsieur le soleil has been pretty conspicuous by his absence these past couple of weeks. 

Mind you, the countryside has been even more impressive than usual.  Here are some pics of my friend Christian Martin and his vineyard in the heart of Grande Champagne. You can see he's not overly impressed with this bizarre "English" weather:

Sadly Frosty has gone off to help Santa prepare for Christmas and normal service has now been resumed with children back at school and a back-log of viewings to be done asap.

'Twas nice while it lasted.

www.cognacproperty.com

Blame it on Boreas

He's the Greek god of the cold north wind and he's arrived in the charente with a vengeance.

Two days ago it was still summer and we were parading around in shorts and a tee shirt.  Now I'm writing this with my jumper on having had to scrape the car for the girls school run.  Maitresse has just put the heating on in the classroom and all the parents are talking about the brutally cold wind.

It's bizarre....we still have the same deep blue sky and the sun is just as bright as ever yet the temperature has plummeted and my nose is red from frostbite rather than sunburn.

Reminds me of this old classic:

The Indians asked their Chief in autumn if the winter was going to be cold or not. Not really knowing an answer, the chief replies that the winter was going to be cold and that the members of the village were to collect wood to be prepared.


Being a good leader, he then went to the next phone booth and called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is this winter to be cold?"


The man on the phone responded, "This winter is going to be quite cold indeed."


So the Chief went back to speed up his people to collect even more wood to be prepared. A week later he called the National Weather Service again, "Is it going to be a very cold winter?"


"Yes", the man replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter."


So the Chief goes back to his people and orders them to go and find every scrap of wood they can find. Two weeks later he calls the National Weather Service again: "Are you absolutely sure that the
winter is going to be very cold?"


"Absolutely," the man replies, "the Indians are collecting wood like crazy!"

www.cognacproperty.com