Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
please remember we have endured sweltering heat, a tempest, hail stones the size of golf
balls, a freezing cold gale and we've only been here three days. What's next?”
Poor James. I did feel for him but there was no avoiding the fact that Jack was quite
right. Now fully backed into a meteorological corner James, to his credit, came out fight-
ing.
“
Ah
, but we very rarely have
serious
storms here. Oooh I should say probably only
one in the last decade or so. On the other hand the great thing about the
tramontane
is that
although it is admittedly a chill wind, it clears the clouds away a treat leaving perfectly
bright blue skies. Just look up now. Money just can't buy that sort of clarity! And don't
forget how lovely and warm it is in sheltered spots.”
Good effort, I thought.
Throughout this fascinating geography lesson I had allowed the dogs to wander about
to the extent of their long leads. It was a relatively safe spot, screened from most fly-
ing debris and they needed a potter before our long drive to Perpignan. I looked over and
was amused to see them totally absorbed in trying to catch passing chips in the wind and
loitering around the
poubelles
(bins) that intermittently regurgitated rubbish, courtesy of a
passing twister.
After some persuasion we agreed to review our visit, which seemed a waste of time
after this most recent revelation, but it was too cruel to James to refuse at this stage. So, on
the plus side the meadowland was excellent and the house was lovely. Unfortunately there
was no avoiding the fact that it looked as though a flotilla of frightened sea creatures had
been let loose on some of the walls. Unlike Jack, I was confident that it was nothing that a
few coats of industrial-strength paint wouldn't eventually sort out.
However, there were still the two major obstacles that got in the way of us proceeding.
There just wasn't enough woodland for our purposes and in spite of James' hurried enquir-
ies, none for sale in the foreseeable future. More importantly, the
tramontane
was a serious
force to be reckoned with. Now that we had conclusively established that it wasn't a one-
off, we knew that it was likely to whistle across the land for several weeks or months of the
year.
With that to look forward to, even I wasn't interested in buying a place where I
struggled to remain upright every time I watered my pot plants on the windward side. Not
to mention the effect it would have on my hair. Just one look in the mirror after our al fresco
lunch rather said it all. Very scary indeed. And finally, being forbidden to open half the
windows of the house due to the risk of causing collateral damage, was just too ridiculous.
And so we bade a fond farewell to James.
I thought it was a shame to part company with him because he was such a nice chap
and had been very honest about both the property and climate, an asset that Jack felt was
rare amongst his profession and therefore to be applauded. Sadly though, he had no other
