It's Hot

The temperature has been really high this past week, and there are no signs that it's going to let up any time soon. Saturday's high at our house was 32,5ºC (90.5ºF) and Sunday's was 33,5ºC (92.3ºF). The weather people are predicting more of the same through the week.

Météo France issued a heat wave (canicule) warning last evening that includes our area that's in effect until Wednesday. We are at warning level orange on a scale that goes from green (no problem), to yellow (be careful), to orange (be VERY careful), to red (oh shit !).

It's pretty dry; no thunderstorms, no rain, no high humidity. Thank goodness for the lack of humidity, but we could really use some rain.

We leave all the windows open during the night so that the house cools off, then in the morning, once the outside temperature equals the inside, we close up again. The outside shades are down so there's no sun shining into the house. It's warm inside, but it is often 5ºC (almost 10ºF) lower than outside at the peak temperature of the day. Whew !

As it is, the vegetable garden gets watered every morning, which is why the moles are finding refuge there, I think. Speaking of the garden, here are some images :

Zucchini in the foreground.

Bell peppers with tomatoes in the background.

Tomatoes waiting to turn red.

The only reason the grass is green in these pictures is because I water with a sprinkler and the grass shares in the moisture. Otherwise, away from the garden, the lawn is brown. It reminds me more of California than of France. Our current houseguest lives part of the year in the southern California desert and he reminds us that it's not really hot until the temperature gets over 105ºF. He's chilly when it's in the 80s.

The upside is that the plants are loving it. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, squash, cucumbers ; they're all thriving in the sun and the heat. I wish I could say the same about us.