I put this heading down as a joke when I started to write this post this morning. I expected to write about how stupid Meteo France were in warning us of snowfall and all we would get was maybe a light dusting. But I was wrong. We really are in the snowpocalypse as the snow has been falling solidly from just after breakfast and we now have a good 10cm maybe 15cm . It's very quiet as only are few hardy souls are venturing onto the roads and most of them are driving with chains (some realised the wisdom of this only after they encountered the first tricky hill/curve combo and put them on at the side of the road). We bought bread in the village - which was like a ghost town. The assistant in the Boulangerie lamented that she had no chains for her car, and I don't think the trains are running. The buses may not be running either. Yes I've often mocked London and SE England for shutting down at the slightest snowfall but here on the Riviera we do the same, and it isn't just a local thing around this village. The airport website reports flights as either "Annulé" or "Retardé" and the autoroute traffic website says that the A8 is closed between Brignoles (half way to Aix) and Italy.
LES AUTOROUTES ESCOTA VOUS INFORMENT : SUR A8 CIRCULATION BLOQUEE SUITE A LA NEIGE ENTRE LES ADRETS ET L ITALIE
sortie 38 obligatoire dans le sens Aix-Italie sortie 44 obligatoire dans le sens Italie-Aix toutes entrees sur A8 fermees entre brignoles et l 'italie les pL sont stockés dans le var et les alpes maritimes il est conseille d'eviter deplacements sur A8
It isn't just humans who are having their plans curtailed. Our cat spent much of the morning looking plaintively at us and demanding that we get rid of this white stuff. This afternoon he made a brief foray anyway but he made it clear that he expected things to be returned to normal ASAP.
As I post this the snow has more or less stopped - we're down to a few flakes falling - but the skies are still gray so more could well fall.
Note: If you click on the pictures you'll see them enlarged at my Snowpocalypse flickr album which I'll update as I take more images.
Blog Home : February 2010 : Permalink
