It’s perhaps a bit odd to welcome myself back to Provence, yet here I am doing just that. Bienvenue !
After another long winter that seemed to drag on forever, arriving here felt almost like I never left. Likely because I know this place so well, or maybe because things went so smoothly. Who’s to say? But coming back felt as natural and normal as could be.
The only thing not particularly normal has been the weather. I have only seen one perfectly clear blue sky which is rather unusual for the end of June. Here we are past the summer solstice, and it seems summer is stubbornly hanging back. I believe the spring here was wet and cool, like a lot of places, and it’s not quite ready to depart. While it was very warm and humid my first few days (humidity here is also unusual), the following day was socked in with clouds and rain. It looked and felt more like October than the end of June. I can’t recall ever seeing a day like that in all the years I’ve been here at this time of year. More humidity followed, alongside fairly cloudy days, more late-day rain storms, and today full-on Mistral. The weather people are promising that complete sunshine, and hot, blue-sky days will arrive, but they keep putting them off. I am sure they will arrive, I am just being impatient.
It's really not been bad at all, just cooler than normal, and a lot of people would consider it hot. In the sunshine it’s lovely and I suppose it’s nice to have a gentle introduction to the heat of the summer. I’ve been out all but one day on the trusty Cramerotti pedalling my favourite routes. Of course, one of my first priorities is checking the lavender status to make sure I don’t miss any of it while in full bloom.
As with last year, the higher altitudes of the Pays de Sault and the Drôme are still not quite at their peak… I am hoping within another week the landscape will be awash with purple. And the warmer it is, the more fragrant it becomes. Very soon I’ll have scores of images of lavender fields and I’ll try to soak up every second of this fleeting season. That, and sniffing around for the sweet scent of Jasmine which is quickly on its way out. The smells here are something I miss so much when gone, the scent of this place is so specific and makes me feel like I am home.
So yes, I am welcoming myself home :)
Definitely the wrong shoes to be wandering around in slightly muddy lavender fields…oh well.
