Dry

The temperature today reached 19° C. That is about 66° F in the states. The “vague de froid” (cold wave) has ended and everyone is talking about spring. The French don’t have Punxsutawney Phil to predict the end of winter on Groundhog Day. The French prefer to make crêpes on that day. They call it “Chandeleur.” Good fortune comes to those who can toss a crêpe into the air and catch it in the same pan (using the hand with which one doesn't write). Even though the focus is different; the French have similar proverbs and predictions for the day. I found these online at about.com.

À la Chandeleur, l'hiver cesse ou reprend vigueur
On Candlemas, winter ends or strengthens

À la Chandeleur, le jour croît de deux heures
On Candlemas, the day grows by two hours

Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte
Candlemas covered (in snow), forty days lost

Rosée à la Chandeleur, hiver à sa dernière heure
Dew on Candlemas, winter at its final hour

The cold and the crêpes aside, the dry weather has become a much more popular topic. Since our arrival in France in mid-December, it has rained only three times including a dusting of snow. The Ouveze River that flows through town now looks like a creek. Mt. Ventoux, usually snow-covered until April, is mostly bald with only small patches of snow on the north side. The leaves on the olive trees are curled up and looking a whole lot more silver than green.

I have not heard anyone speaking of a drought but this year is so different from our past three winters here. An n of three is not the basis for long-term predictions but winter rain gets absorbed into the clay and is what the grape vines and fruit trees live on during the long, dry summers here.

I am not complaining. The skies have been a deep blue with few clouds. The air is clear and regularly re-cleaned by the Mistral winds. I would like to imagine that the sky and air are as they were when the Impressionists started painting Provence scapes in the amazing colors that they used.