06 January 2009

We have snow...

C'est la pagaille dans les aéroports ! Chaos in the airports — that's what they said on the TV news this morning. A thousand of more travelers have been stranded at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris since yesterday morning. The snow that fell over much of the northern half of France yesterday is to blame.

Looking out the kitchen window early this morning

The high speed trains on lines north of Paris are running with significant delays too, because of the weather. And France set an all-time record for daily electric consumption yesterday. The authorities are asking people to go easy on the electricity today, to avoid power failures.

It's winter. But the snow is over now. We must have gotten 5 cm /2 in. or so in Saint-Aignan.

Snow out the French doors in the living room

Callie wants to go outdoors. It's her time. She's never seen snow before, in her two short years on the planet.

Two hours later... I took the dog out for a quick walk in the snow. She loved it. She ran around like a maniac. There were deer tracks everywhere, and that got her excited I'm sure. It's all about smells.

And looking at the back yard out the bedroom window

We are wondering whether Sylvie will be able to get up the hill with our bread and special cake today. She usually gets heres between 10:30 and 11:00 on Tuesdays. But not a single car has come up the hill this morning. Our neighbor the mayor did go out, a little later than usual, but she was sliding down the hill in her Peugeot, not spinning wheels to try to come up it. Duty must have called.

It's also garbage day. Will the truck make it up the hill? No sign of salting, sanding, or plowing yet.

P.S. Sylvie did make it up the hill with our daily bread and our Galette des Rois. She was about 30 minutes later than usual, and she said our hill was the worst one she had to drive up this morning. So lunch is turkey-barley soup, cheese, and then galette as dessert.

18 comments:

  1. Oh, I just love those snow photos. Your house and yard are so charming :)

    Who was the king?

    Judy

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  2. we haven't seen a decent snow here in central virginia in 3 yrs......we used to have short legged dogs....first corgis then dachshund and in the snow (even 1 inch of it) their legs would completely disappear...their whole underbelly would be soaking wet....at least callie has nice long legs
    your snow looks beautiful
    we've got rain here ....again!

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  3. Judy, I got the fève, so I'm the king. It was a little ceramic salt pot. We didn't eat the whole cake, by the way.

    Melinda, sorry for the rain. The snow is nicer, especially now that the sun is shining brightly.

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  4. Ken

    The snow is much nicer in the sun. Here it is white everywhere and it looks gloomy ( I am used to it). Since the temp was fluctuating a lot during the last week of December we have a nice sheet of ice underneath the snow that fell on New Yr's day - so some caution is required when I drive down the hill. Bonne épiphanie !

    Guess galettes during the whole month of January . Enjoy :-)

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  5. I'm glad to hear that the cake arrived and that you are King, Ken!

    Our weather here in Alabama is balmy and in the 60s. I'm wishing for warm weather in DC two weeks from today, but I doubt it will happen.

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  6. Dear King Ken,
    "Neither snow, nor rain, nor dark of night keeps Sylvie from her appointed rounds." Is that how it goes?

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  7. Hi Ken, your images will benefit from a "white balance" adjustment in your camera. You will get something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Bruegel_d._Ä._107.jpg
    Just kidding, but I love your pictures!

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  8. Weather report from Brussels, Belgium: -11° C this morning at 6.30 p.m. when I left for the office. The main roads are clear now, but yesterday morning it was complete chaos on the roads with 5 to 10 cm of snow and it being the first working day after the Christmas holidays! -7,5 C when I drove home half an hour ago. Tonight's temperatures? -15°C in Brussels and -20°C in the higher Ardennes region. Brrrr Martine

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  9. Wrong copy and paste: Peter Bruegel the Elder of Wkipidia: Winter landscape with a bird trap.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Bruegel_d._Ä

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  10. Here's another expression to add to your cold-weather vocabulary:
    "se geler les meules".
    We're freezing here, too!

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  11. Snowed here in Bordeaux, too--only about a cm that's all melted by now--but that didn't stop my colleagues from calling in late because of it!

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  12. Wow, that looks pretty. It was just above freezing with rain on and off in DC this morning. I'll trade!

    DG

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  13. Everyone has weighed in about the snow and King Ken. I would like to express my happiness at Callie's first snow experience and turkey-barley soup.

    If you get a chance, could you please give me the general recipe for it? I love barley soup, but I have not been successful at making it to my liking.

    Cheers!

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  14. Seine Judeet: That one! I don't know how to do on Mac...

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  15. Hi Ken, Does it usually snow or is this unexpected? We had severe storms that brought Washington and Oregon to a standstill over the holidays.

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  16. Hi Sharon, it always can snow here in Saint-Aignan in wintertime, but after two very mild winters we were taken by surprise. I think our climate is actually very similar to yours in the Seattle area. We are just as far north as you are, and we do get ocean influences.

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  17. Chrissoup,Sylvie didn't show up today, Friday. I guess it was too icy after yesterday's melt and last night's freeze. Luckily, we had some bread in the freezer.

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