Winter has arrived – or has it ?

Snow on leaves

We heard that snow was on its way this week, but even so it was a surprise to wake on Wednesday morning to see the world covered in white. The leaves still haven’t dropped from the trees in the forest, which made for big problems. The heavy snowfall weighed down on the leaves and many branches have broken under the weight, taking electrical cables with them. We had a few mini-power cuts (5 minutes or less) but not everyone was so lucky. Large chunks of Cluny and the surrounding villages were out for most of the day and when we spoke to our fruit seller in the market on Saturday morning, he said that Trivy (a village not so far away that has a very good jazz festival in the summer) was still cut off!

The snow fell for four nights running, big thick layers of it, which has now all melted, swelling the river running through the village almost to breaking point and leaving huge puddles in our already waterlogged garden. With such wet conditions we have had some thick fog as well the other morning. In any case it has given us a lot to chat (moan) to the neighbours about and a whole new set of proverbs and sayings to learn.

Here are just two of them:

Brouillard en Novembre, l'hiver sera tender - Fog in November and the winter will be gentle

Quand il neige sur les feuilles, l'hiver a avorté. – When it snows on leaves, the winter is aborted.

Winter rations

So good news all round - a warm non-existent winter. We’ll see - I’m not taking any chances though, I have made a huge batch of thick Dutch pea soup to keep us going for a while.


For information on holiday accommodation in Burgundy, where it doesn’t snow in the summer click here.