In between the heat waves
Summer has well and truly arrived here in the south of France.
We have had two heat waves although for a change we were spared the worst of the second one. Our temperatures hovered around 30°c when much of the rest of France was feeling up to 44°c. These temperatures are relatively unheard of here in France but look like becoming more frequent with the effects of climate change.ll Cimate change is no longer something arriving in the future. It is here now and happening all around us.
All this heat make perfect weather for heading to the beach. Ieither go early in the morning or wait until after 3 o’clock in the afternoon to avoid frying myself. This summer I have discovered the pleasure of a village beach 25 minutes train ride from home - Banyuls-sur-Mer. It is a pebble beach but the pebbles are no so big as to be unconfortable. When I arrive around eight in the morning there is hardly a person on the beach. The water is cool and clear and perfect for a tranquil swim.
Finally when other people arrive they are mostly older people, losts of grandparents looking after the grandchildren for the Summer Holidays. The beach has a local feel unlike many of the others along the coast with their hotels and mega camping sites. At Banyuls there are a couple of diving centres and a sailing school. I would like to get motivated and take the Catamaran Sailing course. It would be good to find a friend to do it with as it would be more fun that way but no volunteers have stepped up so far. I still may go ahead and do it on my own regardless.
Herve will be coming home for the holidays from where he is working in Malaysia at the end of August. It has been a very, very rocky year for us this year and we have only spent one day and a half together since January. His arrival will be a bit of a test for us both to see where we are at in our relationship. Hopefully all will go well.
In the meantime renovations have started in the upstairs apartment. This appartement hasn't been touched for almost fifty years! The mason has begun some preparation work, removing all the old layers of wallpaper, knocking out the wall tiles and lifting up the ugly kitchen floor tiles. Any more progress has been blocked here as I am still waiting for the electricity and plumbing quotes to arrive...for almost three months now. I should look for another company but I have had some nightmare work done in the past and I know these guys do great work. I will just have to be patient.
I try not to be too political on here but WTF is going on in the USA - always more mass shootings and nothing ever changes! We certainly won't hold our breath waiting for Trumpet to do anything. Too busy blowing his own horn... It really has become madness and the rest of the world is having terrible trouble understanding why Amercia continues down this path, the NRA influence notwithstanding. The strategy now seems to be to wait for another attack and then engage the Death Sentence which seems to only avoid the cause of the problem again - too many guns. Way too many guns. So sad.