The Préfecture has decreed there will be NO school buses running anywhere in Dordogne tomorrow. It took me 2 hours to get to Périgueux from Bergerac this morning and another 3 to get back (along the N21) so BEWARE!
Beautiful here too in the Tarn, but the snow and ice are killing trade :-O
Brian, I got the local council workers to clear and salt infront of the shop, I can't go as far as getting them to snow plough and salt from our place outside Albi to Carmaux !
Nobody in this house is going anywhere today - the ice is thick & smooth & lethal on my chemin & the road below (both very steep) & the poor dog did the splits crossing the courtyard this morning. What a BEAUTIFUL day though - I watched the sun rise over the valley & it was breathtaking.
Haha, our newly created Communauté des Bastides has a brand new snow plough with salt and grit sprinklers. The steel is still shiny like chrome. It passed us yesterday afternoon, stopped for a coffee with the president of the football club/councillor down the road then continued to complete our link to the world. It came back just now, pushing the remaining snow aside. The little roads off to one side, well no 'mate' lives on them, so we chose the right place to live ;-D
I slept at the shop last night rather than struggle on the iced over roads, very, very quiet this morning though. Local council out throwing handfulls of salt around, not really equipped for this here!
I think that was the winter the heating oil separated when I was at school in Scotland. We were allowed to wear trousers to school, shock, horror. Mind you even in normal years we used to buy tubs of ice-cream from a v good local shop & store them for days on our dormitory window-sills...
We moved into a massive house in Streatham just before that really cold winter (79?) - there was a strike /shortage at the copper factory. Result = no central heating. Our house was soooo cold. Result =- I was v happy to put on my wellies and crunch through one foot of snow to school every day!
Not so Brian. I fear you have been out of the UK for too long. I imagine you may remember the winter of 1963. I do and school was never closed. When the heating broke down we were advised to wear our coats. Flash forward to the late 80's and schools in Warwickshire would be closed for less than 10cms of snow. The reason being that while the pupils might well get to school on foot, their teachers, who of course couldn't be expected to live in the same community, couldn't drive from their distant homes to present themselves for duty.
Weather really does epitomise Anglophone mentality and way of life too. Here in SW France they cancel school buses! In the UK it would need to be at least 40cm before children have an excuse for a day off :-D
Argh I have put this in twice - I thought it hadn't worked the first time. SORRY! Catharine or James could you please delete the superfluous one? Thank you!