Chaud la Vie

Residential France goes all quiet during the months of July and August. Going to work is a doddle because the schools are out and as a result, much less traffic is on the roads. There are fewer people about and they make less noise seeing as it's so hot everyone is as inactive as possible.

Villages seem deserted as residents hide behind closed shutters to keep out the heat. We grope our way around in the penombre, only throwing open the windows when the sun goes down. Living by traditional means avoids a dependency on air-conditioning. But you do need a well-insulated house and effective shutters.

Early morning, throw open everything to encourage a through draft of cool air. When the temperature starts to climb, close everything. It'll be quite dark, but if you don't, you'll roast and sweat then be obliged to go shopping, lingering in the frozen foods section for a good dose of fraicheur.

Even shopping is pleasanter. Go during the hottest times of the day and you'll have the supermarket almost to yourself. Go at lunch time and you'll marvel at the ease with which you can negotiate the aisles and linger over goodies without provoking a log jam.

Eat light and fresh, have a siesta, go with the flow. When the sun starts to set you can fling open doors and windows and fish out a refreshing bottle of white or rosé to celebrate the return to living. The crickets will be deafening but it'll be the only sound until you add a little soft music to put you in the mood for an evening's merriment, conviviality and good eating.

It's a seductive way of life. Add in the sea and it's even better. Breakfast in a beach café, aperitif, supper, barbecue on the beach, or even just a bag of frites on the sea wall. Voici mon petit coin de paradis.

Beach Babe

May is such a fab month in the south of France. It is not yet too hot to think and there are few tourists about. Trips to the beach are not soured by parking rage from drivers ready to pull out a chill box and whack you one in a fight to the death for a parking spot, and you are not instantly fried by the sun as soon as you tender a dainty piece of skin out from its tee-shirt.

We have been several times this spring so far, mainly because we have friends to go with who enjoy a good picnic accompanied by lashings of wine. My body now resembles a relief map of darker and paler areas, together with 'lakes' of red missed by my sun cream. Very attractive, I'm sure...

The last time we went, the boys decided to play at being superheroes so donned their beach towels as capes and climbed up the dunes only to hurl themselves off again, falling dramatically to the bottom their capes flapping in the breeze. They had been in the sea so were covered in salt, and were now covered in sand. They had a lovely time.

We won't be able to do this for much longer as it really gets too hot to stay all day, and there'll be more and more people encroaching on our space. For the moment though, it's quite perfect to throw together some tomato, cucumber, onion salad, some sarnies, crisps, maybe a tomato tart with gran padano hard cheese, and of course bottles of light fruity wine cooled to perfection in the chill box.

The boys look beautiful all tanned and although I look a bit uneven in my browning bits, it's way better than resembling a suet pudding of pasty whiteness. What a life!