The big blue skies make all the difference down here 
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Thankfully not - set off a bit later than intended but arrived a good ten minutes before the official “latest check-in time”, even managed to set the cruise to 120kph for a good bit of the A84. I don’t mind driving at 130 all the way but fuel consumption is noticeably higher if I do.
I’ve never been that late - but have arrived at the port with less than 30 minutes to go. Was still boarded OK, the “latest check-in” seems to have a good bit of wriggle room.
Yes, quite a few patches, fortunately didn’t hit any really dense spots.
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This week I’ve really missed our other home.
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Glad you had an easy drive back from Millau - it’s a wonderful stretch of autoroute - Foster’s bridge, then you’re up in the sky on top of the Causses and then abruptly plummeting down into the land of cypresses.
We were in Rodez this morning and it looked like they’d had a foot or so of snow in the previous couple of days - fortunately it had been cleared where necessary for this morning’s market. Thankfully no snow back down in the Lot Valley.
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I love driving/riding up the snaking road out of Millau going South - great view and great fun 
always astounds me just how large Millau is, and the bridge, what an achievement!
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we’re all geared up now to never believe their promises 
we have to be around to take charge of their keys and double check their house to ensure they’re not leaving something important behind which they’ll need back in the US…
we’ve been good friends for 25 years and there’s no way they will ever change… but we love 'em just the way they are…
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I’ve done that many times and never get tired of it, videod it more than once as well. I always avoided peages as a policy unless someone requested, and paid, for me to do it.
We used to camp in the town every year too for many years for the biggest petanque competition possibly in the world outside of the world championsips. As you pass along the river you can look down on our site on the opposite bank at the confluence of the 2 rivers. Great for an early morning dip each day.
Could be worse.
Too bad I didn’t see this earlier - Thursday was a disaster by all accounts in the Puy de Dôme, we only just made it back home after the usual non-equipped hapless drivers got stuck and abandoned their vehicles trying to get up the hill out of Issoire. Fortunately, our snow tyres held, with a bit of sliding, and we made it home from work without incident. The story on the A75 was a whole different matter, at least according to the local newspaper. How’d things go for you ?
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The journey went well thanks - the A75 was totally clear of any snow, just quite a bit of snow on the sides, but the temperatures were negative so was a little cautious with the driving. I’ve got all season tyres and the snow chains were in the back, but pleased I didn’t need to do battle with those to get them on
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The AA has just sent this out on winter driving, couple of things on their list I’d forgotten
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must confess… in our regular heatwaves, we often chuckle to one another and say… "we must try and remember how it feels today, when we’re freezing in the winter… "
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But really, both are enjoyable, particularly if you tell one another, yes but at least it’s French weather!
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Can I just jump in and say that personally we appear to be having the very worst winter since we moved to France in late 2014. Here in North Correze it has been mainly utterly vile since mid October. In 2023 our neighbouring commune which has a weather station and is 5km away) recorded 2021mm of rain throughout 2023 which is frankly a ridiculous amount, and over 980mm of that fell from October to the end of December. That is comfortably more rain than the south east of England gets in a year.
I think the sunshine hours must of fallen off the scale too. November 2023 only had three dry days and even when not raining it has been utterly gloomy. The Scots call it “dreich”.
We had a little cold spell with a minor amount of snow in the last week or so and did achieve a few bright, sunny and frosty days. But that didn’t last and now we are plunged back into “permagloom”. It’s not freezing cold, but that penetrating damp cold and only around 3 - 5 degrees in the daytime. We have never known it so wet and gloomy for so long in this part of the world. Literally 12-13 months of mainly wet weather. Only February 2023 was dry (ish).
Seems that in our quest to try and avoid the ravages of climate change (by looking for some altitude, greenery and higher rainfall) we have moved to a part of France that may be evolving to have utterly dismal winters. I would have given my right arm not to have spent the last 60-80 odd days here on the Plateau Millevaches. It’s really been that bad.
Winter 2022-23 was so much better. More snow; many, many more blue sky days with frost. Apparently, historically North Correze used to have much colder and snowier winters with higher levels of winter sunshine.
I know this winter has been badly affected by El Nino, but honestly it has been so awful here. This is coming from someone who has experienced many a Snowdonia winter. Maybe it is just a blip, (a bad year) but I really don’t think my mental health could cope with another winter here like this one. Spring cannot come soon enough. Just some basic warmth (15 -20 degrees), dryness and sunshine would be most welcome.
Heaviest fall…are you being sarcastic? 
That looks like a dusting to me!
No - that is honestly the heaviest fall I’ve seen here in over a decade. We have a real microclimate and although it is often cold (in the -4° to -15° range) snow is pretty much unheard of. And yet friends 10km away can have 30cm of snow while we’re untouched.
Never seen that much snow down in our valley in twelve years - have to cross to the other side of the Lot to find some frost.
The first winter we were here, I bought a snow shovel (not ‘in advance of a broken arm’ - one for Brian). Have never used it,
Where are you then Brian, which part of France?