A Ship in the Wind - Fat Dogs and French Estates - page 90

way, I've seen some pretty wild-eyed looking people in there,” he said gesturing towards
the café. “So, I've a pretty good idea what the answer will be.”
“Now, interesting you should raise that point,” responded James. “I'm afraid that today
we're experiencing a pretty gutsy example of the tramontane .”
“Aha!” I interjected, keen to show off my recently acquired new knowledge, “isn't
that the wind that blows from north to south over the Midi-Pyrénées for a couple of weeks
during the year and then disappears?”
“Er, not quite,” came the sheepish reply. “Let me explain using an on-line map.”
And with that James opened his briefcase and produced his laptop together with all the
paper documents associated with the morning's viewing. Quite honestly it had been all we
could do to hang on to our burgers so, despite our best efforts at pinning them down, the
sheaf of papers was instantly whipped off the table and lost forever.
“Oh, please don't worry,” said James breathlessly as he returned from lumbering
around the car park for a few minutes in hopeless pursuit, “all the information is on my
computer anyway.”
He returned to the job in hand and proceeded to give us an explanation about the
foibles of the tramontane . It transpired that it is a strong, dry, cold wind created by the dif-
ference of pressure between the cold air of a high pressure system over the Atlantic Ocean
or northwest Europe and a low pressure system over the Gulf of Lion in the Mediterranean.
The high-pressure air flows south, gathering speed as it moves downhill and is funnelled
between the Pyrénées and the Massif Central where it accelerates. This is similar to the
Mistral in its causes and effects, but it follows a different geographical corridor.
Jack listened intently to this explanation.
“I see. How many days on average does it blow for?” he asked.
“Days?” replied James, somewhat flummoxed by the question.
“Okay then, months?” he snapped, now thoroughly irked.
“Oh, er, well, actually it can be fairly relied upon to blow, pretty consistently. In fact
throughout the winter and spring. Often at other times during the year too. So I would have
to say that it probably, yes, definitely blows for quite long periods of time.”
“Right. This wind is often present throughout the year. So it is therefore persistent. It
is also cold and dry.”
“Yes, oh yes indeed, and the funny thing is, it has quite a fearsome reputation with the
locals. It's probably all folklore at its worst but I understand that for some people the con-
tinuous howling noise of the tramontane is said to have a disturbing effect upon the psyche.
It's quite famous really. Victor Hugo, in his poem Gastibelza , has the main character saying
something like: ' Le vent qui vient à travers la montagne me rendra fou. ' (The wind coming
over the mountain will drive me mad.)”
“I'm not surprised,” said Jack casting a pensive eye towards the café. “Is there any-
thing positive at all you can tell us about the climate? And whilst considering your answer