Snowed in

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to snow here. When you can walk outside in a thin sweater in the middle of January, there's something wrong.

Winter finally hit my village last weekend when the first snow pushed past the mountains and tumbled down onto my doorstep. As soon as I saw it start to fall Saturday evening, I threw on a coat and ran for the door to dance with the snowflakes.

Since then it has been snowing almost everyday. Thursday there was about 2 cm of snow on the ground and the world stopped. The buses were canceled, Friday was declared a snowday, drivers were scrambling to wrap chains around their tires and everyone else refused to step outside. The French just can't deal with the snow.

Yesterday I woke up to a winter wonderland. Overnight the village was covered in a soft, sparkly blanket. We received a massive dumping of fresh, fluffy snow in the morning, which ceased in the afternoon after reaching a comfortable 15 cm. This morning I opened my curtains to the same white landscape blurred by giant snowflakes. It's incredible - one day it's 10 C and the next it's transformed into a Canadian winter. If it keeps it up we're going to have another snowday tomorrow. I think I can deal with 4 day weekends.

Visibility conditions while skiing this week

While most people have barred themselves indoors, I spent most of yesterday outside making snowmen families with the neighbor's kids and hiking in the mountains. 

People, it's magical. Embrace it.

While the French are paranoid about leaving their homes, I am reveling in the beautiful silence of the white world beyond my window, spending much of my day gazing out at it.

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a mug of hot chocolate in the kitchen with my name on it.