Il pleut comme vache qui pisse
We say 'it's raining cats and dogs'. In France, if it's raining hard, it's as strong as a cow peeing.
Dear all,
The Loire Valley is lush with fields of sunflowers, maize and red sorgham. By lush, I really mean rain soaked.. Sodden. On Saturday in the space of an hour we had sunshine, thunder, lightening, heavy rain, hail stones that rattled against the house blinds and a wind so strong it threw rain water underneath the doors. Followed by a double rainbow, brilliant sunshine, and an hour later more heavy rain. The local farmers are not happy. Empty buckets outside the kitchen door were now full to the brim.
For your reading pleasure, I thought that I might find a French translation for ‘The rain it raineth every day', but instead I found some far more amusing French wet weather expressions.
Trempe comme une soupe
To be soaked like soup
Il pleut des cordes
It's raining ropes.
Un temps de chien
Dog weather
On Saturday evening I managed to open the oysters we'd bought at the market in Loches1, proudly displaying them with the tiniest coffee cup of mignonette.
And on to Voustock, a tiny little local village music festival. The local drumming teacher had gathered his students together, and bands played in the village square.
Walking back to the car we looked up, and a dazzlingly clear star covered sky looked back. On our way back, Liz drove slowly to avoid hitting any less than road safety aware deer that leap out of the local woods at night. What we didn't expect to see was a frog, springing a few feet in the air just ahead of us. We swerved to miss it.
At home we wrapped up in jumpers and sat in the garden with armagnac, spiced rum and coffee cups of poire William sorbet to watch the splendour of the galaxy. It was as if the weather was apologising for the earlier tantrum, replacing the sulky theatrics with a stunning virtuosity.
More from me next week. I hope you've had rainbows and clear skies.
Loches market stories coming soon
Oh this was a lovely read! Snuggled up in bed on a chilly Hastings Autumnal morning I was transported to rainy France - fab!