Le Mistral

I sit at home, smelling the scent of my cake baking and hearing the ROAR of "le mistral" (mee-strahl) outside. I had to go out to do some errands this morning and literally thought I was going to be knocked off my feet by the wind. It's fierce! And cold. Even though it is about 14C above and bright sunlight streaming down, it feels cold once that wind gusts. Mind you, when it gusts you're not thinking so much about how cold it is, I was thinking about not getting blown into oncoming traffic. I knew before I left the house that it was going to be nasty, could tell by the sound of the wind, the sight of the trees bending over, and everyone walking by in winter coats with hoods up. So my last post about signs of spring...maybe just got my hopes up a bit. : ) Although the almond, apple, cherry and mimosa trees are all blooming, there are tulips in the flower shops (sorry, Beth!) and the grass is green...it's far from sunbathing weather. Yet. I'm used to good ol' Prairie blizzards, in the dead of winter with their fierce cold winds. But this is just foreign to me, I need some drifting snow banks and concerned weather reporters talking about windchill factor. Not a good day to go fly a kite...you might find yourself taking off with it.
This wind originates in the northeast Rhone valley, sweeps south into Provence (and thus Marseille) blowing all the way out into the Sea. And that's where it can stay as far as I'm concerned. It's the 5th day of le mistral this week. I've heard stories of people going "mad" because of this wind. I can understand why. Not that you would notice if that happened to me, right?