CANICULE!

France is in the midst of a Canicule or Heat Wave! So how hot is that? Saturday, July 29^th at 2:30 PM in Lovely Lyon it was 93 degrees ramping up to 96⁰. In Paris it was 91⁰ on its way to 95⁰.  We were just down at our favorite auberge in Viviers for a few days - it was103⁰ there Friday. (BUT, they have a pool and AC.)  And, on Friday the thermometers in France broke the previous record high of 44.1⁰C (111.38⁰F) with a whopping 45.9⁰C in Gallargues-le-Montueux.  (That’s just over 114.6⁰F!)  There are advisories and warnings in all the media about drinking lots of fluids, not over exercising, monitoring invalids, etc., etc. 

Here’s a map of France showing the conditions Saturday:

What we're talking about here, folks, is Fresno weather! Anna was born and raised in Fresno, California and never did well in heat OR liked the hot summers.  In fact, David says that he proposed by telling her that if she’d marry him, he’d take her out of Fresno.  Obviously, she responded positively!  But, heat is heat, and it’s no more pleasant here in Lyon than it was in Fresno.

Fortunately, Lyon has a lot of fountains.  And, as you can see, they are definitely being put to good use:

Those of you who have been to Lyon, will recognize the large

 flower sculpture next to this fountain.

So how are we coping with the heat in Lyon?  Well, our apartment has heavy metal shutters, and we have closed them.  That's actually, one of the recommendations in the many advisories since most apartments and homes here have heavy shutters.  And, we have fans and a portable air conditioner.  The AC is really only for one room, so we have pretty much moved into our large “salon” or living room.  Right  now we are sitting in front of our portable AC and catching up on our reading (and writing a blog posting). It's supposed to "dip below" 90⁰F here next week. Sounds pretty good right now!