What has happened to the Spring season in France?

We moved to France in October 2014. Charente at first, but didn’t settle so moved over to Limousin. I recall our first spring in France as being absolutely amazing. Nearly wall to wall sunshine, high pressure and generally lovely weather from March through to May. T shirt and shorts weather.

Since then (a period of seven years) I generally cannot remember a really nice and warm spring with settled weather for the majority of time, maybe an odd week here or there?

We are in Haute Correze now so would expect cooler temperatures, but the lack of sunshine and high pressure in spring is noticable. 2021 was a shocking weather year here with an extremely cold April and pretty miserable March and May. Washout summer too. We lost all our tomato plants and none of the other veg really recovered.

Last year we struggled to see any sustained warmth through any part of the year and had our pellet burner running for 8 out of 12 months of the year!!

We moved to the high part of the Limousin (Plateau Millevaches) for slightly cooler summers and more reliable rainfall for growing. The summers in Charente were just ridiculous with 40 plus degrees not rare and many weeks without rain. In Limousin we didn’t expect the spring weather to be so bloody awful, yet since being in Limousin (2017) there have also been two years with serious summer droughts and crazy heat (high thirties) (2019, 2020).

Spring is my favourite season by far and yet now it feels like it is just an extension of the milder winters we are getting. If the last seven years are anything to go by it’s maybe not a blip?

Where is the warmth and settled high pressure weather? Wouldn’t you expect this in the southern part of France in spring?

Another feature seems to be the wind. After a relatively dry, sunny and calm winter, since spring arrived we have been plagued by strong gusting winds from all directions itseems. Today is overcast and around 12 degrees but the wind is gusting to around 75 kmph, I can hear it in the chimney!

It looks even worse further south today with some places having gusts of up to 150kmph. (Ventusky.com is great for animate live weather maps).

[https://www.ventusky.com/]

Previous springs and indeed summers have been extremely windy for much of the time.

Obviously climate change has a big hand in all of this, but it seems to me like we won’t experience another lovely spring again…seven years and counting!!

What’s it like where you are?

I think what we now face in the world (wherever we live) is more unsettled and more extreme weather. In fact given what some parts of the world are facing I think we here in France are getting off pretty lightly! :slight_smile:
I think it is more positive and more constructive to think much shorter term and no longer expect seasons to behave in a certain way, but to grab the moment and behave accordingly. For example much of February was pretty benign for us (Lot-et-Garonne) and we really got ahead with mowing, pruning and painting the outside of the house. Some years February has been wretched with snow / rain and bitter cold and we’ve barely left the house. This year we really enjoyed our time outside. Now, March is doing its usual “giboulées” thing so I’m wrapping up warm and after lunch will be back out there hacking down buddleias etc that don’t like being pruned too early and despite the wind it’s the sort of robust task I can do and stay warm. Importantly, for me at least, just being outside and working and not waiting for better weather is good for my mental health.

I also think it’s better not to look over one’s shoulder at “what was” - that can just cause regret. We are where we are. Better adapt and make the most of what still is a beautiful place to live.

4 Likes

2021, once it got going, was for us a year of roses, green grass, growth in the garden, no dead trees and no canicule. Every year is different .

3 Likes

Maybe here in the Plateau Millevaches (which is extreme) we are just longing for some warmth and sun for more than a couple of days. Last year we had barely two months when the weather was pretty good and one of those was February. I would imagine the Lot et Garonne has a much softer climate than Haute Correze, but unbearably hot during the summer? (2019; 2020) I know a lady who gardens at 1200 metres in Haute Loire and she feels the same about the cold and unsettled springs. When you live at altitude it’s basically extending the winter by several months if we don’t have a mild and warm spring.

We just had a week of glorious sunshine in southern Burgundy, followed by some rainy days and now the weird Saharan dust.

March last year was pretty gorgeous too and then the summer was terrible.

Like Sue said, best grab the moment when it arrives.

I know it’s hard with all the price rises but maybe you should aim to head south for a blast of sunshine later this Spring.

1 Like

I understand what people are saying but we have yet to have a day this year above 18 degrees. Heating on virtually every day. Today is hazy, weird Saharan sand light. Supposed to reach 17 degrees but in the strong wind only a masochist would be out in T shirt and shorts today. Feels like 10 degrees out there. Like I said we haven’t had properly warm and sustained weather since February 2021 when we had high twenties for several weeks.

But that doesn’t sound that strange, the Limousin was notorious for not having great weather at the best of times before even taking into account climate change.

What sounds weird is having high twenties for several weeks in February. That definitely sounds like weather gone haywire.

1 Like

I am from Scotland so any day is an improvement :laughing:, weather with us has been pretty normal, relatively mild winter, nice spring and hot summers, last year was an exception as we had one week of late frosts which decimated our blossom so very little fruit.
Our grass never stops growing here so it gets cut 12 months of the year.

2 Likes

This is the 4th year in a row so far of autumn winters with repeated deluges of rain. Our previous springlike February and March in the nearly 30 years just feels like a longer winter.

I have seriously thought this is ridiculous we’re Northern Lot but we are getting Loire Valley weather.

My favourite is yr.no has spent the last 2 months telling me our night temperature wil be between 1 and up to 4 degrees C but it will “feel like” minus 3 degrees or minus 4 degrees. So the 1 inch or more solid ice in the cats bowls outside at 08.00am is just imaginary then.

Other than the millimetres of rain yr.no says we will have being actually the right number - except it’s in centimetres, yr.no is currently the most accurate for our little microclimate.

1 Like

Well, neither have we, and we’re much further south in Aude. Last spring was terrible here, with regular frosts up to the middle of May. We lost all our veg seedlings that we had nurtured indoors and had to go out and buy new plants.
When we moved into this house in the second week of March 2019, daytime temperatures were 20-25C from that point on.

1 Like

Where are you in France though?

72 near Le Mans.

That’s really not true about the Limousin climate. Yes it rains a lot, but it has not been a really windy place devoid of nice springs until recent years. Why would the Limousin be massively popular with British and Dutch buyers if the climate was so bad? Last February was freak weather, best spell of weather we had all year in 2021!!

So it’s not just us in the Plateau Millevaches then. For me the weather in this part of France is so much more extreme than the UK. I recall being at Lac Vassiviere in August when it was 38 degrees (2019) and also winter temperatures of -20 with windchill. Last May we had frosts right at the end of the month, wiping out our tomatoes. Snow in April or October here is not unusual. I’m hoping that once March is out of the way we finally get a decent April into May with temperatures in the low to mid 20’s.

Glad someone gets what I’m on about. Northern Correze (Plateau Millevaches) is up to 979 metres at Mont Bessou. Our renovation is at 800 metres. After the extreme canicules of 2019 and 2020 we thought buying a partially shaded but south facing house in a forest would be a good plan as the altitude and trees would help with the extreme heat in the summers. Since we bought it in October 2020 we have had no hot weather here in Haute Correze. Maybe a day or two last summer close to 30, but then two days later 14 degrees! We are renovating but not living in it yet. I went up there yesterday to work and there was fresh snowfall!

It won’t help then telling you in some of the window boxes and a bed sheltered next to the workshop the begonia, geranium and lobelia survived the winter here :relaxed:

When I spent six months in the Limousin (beautiful place) lots of French people I met outside of the Limousin would react with oh the weather is terrible there, upon hearing where I was, so it does have a bit of a reputation for bad weather but maybe that’s just the rain.

Having said that maybe there’s a bit of gentle competition between all departments to compare and contrast in favour of one’s own department?

As for the British and Dutch tourists, I think the Brits are drawn to the supposedly cheap house prices and beautiful scenery and the Dutch probably like the spaciousness of the place. Maybe it is also a bit like people go and visit the Lake District in spite of the weather.

5 Likes

OH is always delighted as he watches the rain clouds build up over to the west of us then turn north of us to Dordogne. He’s firmly convinced Lot-et-Garonne has better weather. I prefer the rain (sometimes) for the garden.

2 Likes

Paul, I think you want le beurre et l’argent du beurre ! It’s perhaps popular with brits and dutch etc but not with the french, they know what it’s like up there :rofl:
On a more serious note, it’s usually a compromise ; better winters but you have to put up with the summer heat or escape the heat but pay for that through the winter. Or go for not too hot or cold but wet in Brittany.
Perso, i would have gone for the Ariège, but that’s one of our favourite playgrounds !

7 Likes

French have been buying property up left, right and centre in this area since Covid. Maybe just for summer bolt holes, but some for permanent houses. As for Ariege, yes I would swap in a heartbeat for here. We visited in 2019 and loved it, however the property prices are much higher and hard to find a house with any land attached. We have a small budget. I think so much of France is out of reach for those with a small budget, hence the high number of Brits in places Like Limousin Charente, Vienne, Deux Sevres, Brittany. Brittany would be our best bet (because we are big into horticulture) but I like wild countryside and mountains, hence Limousin is the only affordable area of France that offers that, well maybe Auvergne too, but that’s even more bleak than here for 8 months of the year! :crazy_face:

1 Like