Snow and black ice are the order of the day all around Saint-Aignan. Here's this morning's Accuweather radar image for northern France. Saint-Aignan is about in the middle of the image. Pink is freezing rain. Green is rain. Blue is snow.
I'm hoping that the rain that's falling right now won't turn into frozen precipitation before noon. Today is the day I'm supposed to take the Citroën in for it's every-other-year inspection, which is called the contrôle technique. Walt and I have to decide whether or not we'll drive over there in two cars so that he can drive me back home. It's only three miles from the house to the inspection station, but there is one very steep hill on the route.
Looking down the road from our hamlet in late November 2005
It's the hill we drive down to get to Saint-Aignan and then drive back up to get home. If it's iced over, we're in trouble. At the bottom of the hill, the elevation is 274 feet (84 meters), and at the top it's 384 feet (117 meters). The distance from down below to up here at our house is just one-third of a mile (500 meters). So it's a real climb.
Looking up the road toward our hamlet in late January 2012
Oh, gracious... what did you end up doing? How are the roads?
ReplyDeleteP.S. The Citroën C4 car sailed through its inspection. No significant issues. The inspector said I would need to get new rear wheel brake pads in about six or seven thousand kilometers. I told him that would be about four years from now! I drive so little. Anyway, I'm good to go for two more years with both cars. It's amazing to think that the Citroën is 15 years old now, and the Peugeot 22. And we didn't get any significant snow or ice after all. The roads were wet but traction was not a problem.
ReplyDeleteLove the hill pictures. Glad your car is still purring along.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
I know why you don't want to climb the hill to your house in icy conditions- glad the inspection went well.
ReplyDeleteI had to Google "verglas." I don't know that there is an exact equivalent in English.
ReplyDeletechm— Verglas, as a noun, verglacer, as a verb, verglacé, as an adjective are the translation of various occurrences in English. Verglas is black ice. Verglacé is icy. Freezing rain is pluie verglaçante.
Deletechm—Interesting origin of the term black ice. Verglas on a deep lake looks black!
DeleteI've always thought of black ice being called that because you don't immediately see it on surfaces like asphalt because, unlike frost or snow, the ice is completely transparent and invisible. One term in English for verglas is "glaze" — the road surface is glazed. An icy glaze is verglas. Luckily, we didn't encounter any icy glaze on the roads yesterday. I remember glaze like that, ice storms, and freezing rain when I was growing up in North Carolina.
DeleteThanks for these comments chm and Ken! I am forever leaning Francais and I appreciate the help!
Delete