Jan
10
A (2nd Mid) Week in Provence [12]
Filed Under Live
It’s Sunday and the third day of the Siege of Menerbes (and Roussillon, Lacoste, etc etc). Home-bound, snowed in and dipping into the stocks of wood, gas and food all stockpiled for such an eventuality.
The grocery list is getting longer.
Compared to the last snowy spell (Jan 09) we have learnt so much.
Urban legends such as: when the water forms a bubble on the swimming pool as it rains, then it’s going to rain again the next day (Robert); when it’s black, overcast and hush-hush still (along with a quickening of pace from the usually laid-back Provencal people) then the snow is coming (Gilles) and after a snowfall, the “shaking of the olive tree” – this protects the branches from being weakened by the weight of the snow and, heaven forbid, breaking off and cutting back on olive production the next autumn (Jean-Pierre).
Another learning curve has been a fresh respect for the people who keep our basic utilities functioning. While the sanctimonious SkyTV reporters blab on about how the European infrastructure is crumbling and not coping, these poor guys brave Artic conditions to keep everyone warm, cheerful and with lights, water and electricity. Telephone availability we’ll chat about in a later post. Rolling blackouts, power surges, iced up water meters, snow laden satellite dishes, impassable roads – we’ve seen the lot in the past three weeks.
The village trees have taken a bit of a hammering. A large tree no doubt planted in Picasso’s time has shed some huge branches in the Dora Maar house.
[Dora Maar house peeping through behind the fallen branches]
On our road there is a house owned by an English couple – we call it ‘Selfridges’ because they bring so many of the distinctive yellow and black Selfridges packets when they come to Menerbes the communal dust bins are overflowing.
[Selfridges - Menerbes branch]
[Village street]
[No room at the Inn for birds tonight, I'm afraid]
[Icicles on the front canopy - note the freshly shaken olive tree and Madame's new pot]
and a last shot of the house ……..
To-morrow we have to brave the roads – Marseilles to pick up Erica. Let’s hope we can get the car out of the drive……….
Au bientot : Lovonne and Simon xx
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