Day 1145 (Tuesday) 28th July 2020
Another 7am alarm and it was pretty hot – I found this forecast in the Local yesterday…
France braces for 'very hot week' as temperatures set to hit 40C
Monday kicked off what was predicted to be an extremely hot week in France, with some areas in the south seeing temperatures "approaching July records," according to Météo France.
The national weather agency warned of a "very strong heat" hitting the whole country on Monday, as France entered one of the hottest weeks this summer.
"The warmest temperatures locally in the southwest could approach monthly July records," Météo France stated on their website.
Cities like Bordeaux and Lyon were predicted to see thermometers spiking as high as 34C and 37C respectively on Monday afternoon, while Paris would get 32C.
Most of the northern half of the mainland would see temperatures up to or above 30C, while some local areas in the south would get 40C in the afternoon.
"Locally 40C in Midi-Pyrénées," the Méteo France warned inhabitants of the southern Occitanie département.
The agency said temperatures would cool off slightly on Tuesday and Wednesday in most of the country, except in the southeast where "it will be very hot all week", with several areas getting up to 35C.
Thursday spells another surge in temperatures on a nationwide basis, and Friday "could be even hotter than Monday" for the entire country, according to Météo France.
I had a lot of fun trying to put my pom pom sandals on
I had a nice chat with Olivier across the train tracks again and spent my usual time in Parc Mozart. I did some grammar with the 11 kids before the break and they were pretty well behaved and they all want to ‘play teacher’ and write the answers on the board. After break William brought his 8 year old daughter into the class to join us – so now I had 12 kids speaking very loudly and in an extremely high pitch – even the boys. I had to yell at them three times – it’s exhausting but we managed to end the class with a giggle playing Pictionary.
As usual we finished at midday and I walked down to the Promenade des Anglais, stopping in a new park for a short while.
These statues are outside one of the bigger hotels on the prom and I can never decide if I like them or not
But I do love walking along the prom
At the moment all the palm trees are wearing what I call ‘skirts’ and this has something to do with the Tour de France which starts in Nice next month. I hope we are allowed to go and see some of it.
As I approached the Marriot I found a blue chair and enjoyed my quiche and read my Lynda LaPlante book.
As much as I disapprove of private beaches I liked the flowers on this one
It was really good to be working at the Marriott again even if it is only two hours a week at the moment.
It was good to see Gilles (pronounced Jeel) again – the last time we met was 10th March – and we had our class in a conference room on the 7th floor. We did some grammar and then moved onto fluency practise and when the word ‘gypsy’ came up and ‘traveller’. He asked me what we call these in the UK and I said we use both. This is the Frenchman who used to be married to an Irish women and worked in a pub in Dublin. He told me that gypsies in Ireland are called ‘knackers’ and when I told him about our knacker drinking during the lockdown he thought it was hilarious. I told all about how charming our isolation was in Villefranche and I think he was a bit jealous.
During our break he showed me the roof pool, I’ve seen it empty in the winter but now it’s summer it looks lovely
And the view is spectacular
The two hours flew by and I was soon on the tram heading back into Nice. I got off at Garibaldi and walked back down to the prom.
I met Huw and we went to one of the balcony bars overlooking the sea – we both love these balconies. We had two small beers and enjoyed the view.
Badger was very happy to see us when we got home. I worked for 5 hours today and walked 6.1 kms – it feels like life is getting back to normal but as far as I know I’m only working two hours next week. I’m not worried about this because it’ll be August and nobody in France works in August, let’s just hope September will bring some normality back.
· In 1993, France was a founding member of the European Union, a collection of 27 nations banding together to promote peace, democracy, and economic stability.
· The French system of government is actually a combination of a parliamentary democracy, like the United Kingdom, and a presidential democracy like the United States. It has both a President and a Prime Minister.
· Due to France’s moderate climate and an abundant amount of usable farmland, they are the European leader in agriculture. There are over 700,000 farms in France.
· French life expectancy for men is 78, while the average for women is 84. When compared to the rest of the world, this indicates that the French are very healthy.
· The French have more “second homes”, usually vacation homes, than citizens of any other country.
· The national flower of France is the sword lily. Beginning in the 12th century, French kings adorned their robes, palaces, and flags with the “fleur-de-lis”, a highly-stylised version of the beloved iris.
· All countries have seemingly-nonsensical laws on their books. France is no exception, but at least one of these humorous laws reflects their national pride: It is against the law in France to name a pig “Napoleon”.
· Despite their great appreciation of beauty, the French have outlawed child beauty pageants. The punishment for breaking this law is up to 2 years in prison and a fine of 30,000 Euros.
· Famous as a landmark, tourist attraction, and world-renowned museum, the Louvre was originally constructed in 1190 as part of a line of defense against the vicious Viking raids of the time.
· During his time as King of France, Louis Philippe survived seven attempts on his life.
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