I decided that my life hung in the balance. I needed heat, hot food and a dry, warm bed. So, armed with a 5 litre box of red wine, I ventured out to see if friend number 1 was at home. She was not. I was soaked through by now in minus zero temperatures. Knocked on friend number 2s door. They were in! Also, they had a log fire burning, electricity and a beef stew cooking! Paradise! They took me in, looking and feeling like a dog that had fallen into an Artic flow. I took off all my 4 layers of wet clothes, borrowed dry ones, and sat , unmoving, by the fire for an hour. My voice had returned, as had my appetite and thirst. I spent a blissful 24 hours with them- fully recovered, but with a sore head form too much red wine. I returned to my home, and was overjoyed that the electricity had returned and that I was able to continue my work.

The floods did not arrive and no damage was done. The electricity had been cut due to trees falling on the wires. I have to admit that I did have momentary thoughts of questioning my madness of leaving an efficient city like London and decamping into a small 1000 population village of Bize Minervois, Aude, Languedoc.

Summer is now here. The weather is now 35 C every day and the river is my swimming pool. The cigales are screeching outside, the swallows and house martins swoop through the village in huge numbers, and all is wonderful in the world! The property market is very slow, though it is a perfect time for buyers looking for a retirement home and/or a holiday home on the west coast of the Mediterranean.

My baptism of snow seems like a distant nightmare.

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