Hi Chris,
I discovered by chance that runner beans can survive over winter in our temperate Normandie climate. A bit like Dahlia tubers, they can be left in the ground so long as frost doesn’t penetrate deeply into the soil. So when I dig around April, I pot up a couple of old roots and put them in the greenhouse. This gives them a head start, because the outside soil temperature is too cold for them to begin to sprout. By mid May there will be several shoots around 20cm. long and I then plant them out. They grow much faster than those grown from seed, because there is a considerable reserve of starch stored in the tubers. I have only been doing this for a couple of years, so I don’t know how long this will continue to work, or if at some stage I will have to re-start from seed.
I guess that you might need to dig them out and store them in a frost free environment if you live in a colder climate and you would need to protect them from mice and snails, as I suspect they are quite nutricious!
I may give it a go - suspect I’ll have to lift them here with winter temps. But may try a few roots in pots over winter in the tunnel and see what happens
Gosh!!
Good luck! If it works for you, you’ll be harvesting several weeks in advance of seed grown beans. Let us know how you get on.
Guess the barbie’s cancelled then?
Had it yesterday 
Oh my! I’ve been wishing for a good downpour. Maybe I should be careful!
@Mark Gosh and Golly Gosh!
I have just witnessed the worst storm that I have seen in the last 30 years of my life…the downpour was ridiculous…St Just in the Dordogne.
@Gilly2. Welcome to France! Nothing like a bigger land mass to attract weather…
Yep. I won’t need to water for a few days. 
Just been out weeding - nothing like a good downpour to make pulling out weeds easier.
More forecast for tomorrow, apparently.
And Thursday by the look of it.
Still waiting in Normandie. Roll on Thursday!
Oh Mike, you have my sympathy. Some years we watch the storm clouds roll up from the west and they turn north or south missing us almost by inches! I use the blitzortung website which shows live lightning strikes and we so often can see the path up from the Pyrenees, on the diagonal, which hits Bordeaux full on and sails straight past us. Yesterday was a very welcome exception. We could see afterwards there had been a direct strike on the field just up behind us (it was loud). I feel sorry for our neighbours’ chained up dogs and the tiny pony in the field beyond.
http://en.blitzortung.org/live_lightning_maps.php?map=10
Barely rained here, SW Dordogne. And a couple of weeks ago there was a deluge and flooding in Ste Foy 27km from me as the crow flies and not a drop here. I am on the crest of the ridge and often sit outside in the sunshine watching storms tip it down in the valley and on the opposite ridge.
Our forecast keeps changing. Now we are expecting a week of “faibles pluies.” I was hoping for a sudden downpour and get it over with!
Hi Mike
Almost given up on rain in Le Tanu. All 3 rain butts now empty, grass brown and crispy. Watering veg patch from the tap most nights. This is not normal Normandy but love it !!
Andy
Same postcode. Seem so recent that we were almost flooded and it just wouldn’t stop raining!