No More Wind

Le mistral is finally over. I couldn't figure out what was wrong when I woke up yesterday morning, then I realized it was because I couldn't hear the roaring of the wind. What a relief! My ears were actually ringing most of the afternoon because of the lack of noise. I read the local Marseille paper at lunch time, they had some pictures of the port and the damage the winds caused. The waves were coming up 10 feet, sections of the coastline were closed to the public. There was also a picture of 4 grown men, bent over, linking arms trying to walk together against the wind, which was gusting up to 120 km/hour. Didn't look like they were doing so well. And a young woman (urged on by the photographer) gripped a sign post with both hands and then kicked her feet up to see if she could "fly". She could. She couldn't get her feet back down on the ground. The photographer had to rescue her as she hung on to the sign post and her legs continued to blow in the wind. But my favourite picture, a guy going swimming. Freezing water, churning madly, 10 feet waves and spray, and he's going for a dip?! Some people just take it too far. The plus side to all the wind is that the sky has never been bluer, no pollution or smoke hanging over the city (for now). But there's lots of garbage and broken trees, etc in the streets. Can't wait for the next visit of le mistral!