A whole six months without posting! Six months in Paris, where we suffered under the first, May, heatwave, or ‘Canicule:’ with temperatures in the mid 30s: shutters (where we have them) closed all day, open when the sun sets, hoping cooler air will breeze in. But nighttime cool in the city is not cool enough to help, unlike here near the coast of northern California the temperature drops 20 degrees as soon as the sun goes down and fog rolls in off the Pacific. The fog may hang around until late morning, but seldom for the whole day. I watched it roll in last evening, down the coastal hills and along the bay. It looks like a long train entering slowly and deliberately entering a station.

‘Canicule’ is the French word for very hot weather. It’s been around for several centuries, my dictionary tells me, and refers to the ‘dog days’ or the period of great heat when the dog star rises and sets with the sun. ‘Par la fenêtre ouverte de ma chambre de torture, pénètre la chaleur lourde, pâteuse, écrasante, d'une matinée de canicule’ is one of the examples drawn from French literature and dated 1898. But I don’t believe it was ever as hot before this year.

A new episode of the ‘canicule’ has just begun in France.

Beverley Bie Brahic