It’s difficult

Last weekend when I took Olivier back for his lift to Poitiers, we took the road which was furthest away from the sea. It didn’t seem right somehow to ogle the misfortune of the people that live in that village. Even on the road we took we could see that the sea had entered into the fields, there was still a lot of water. We could smell the sea too.

This morning I went to collect Olivier and decided to take the road nearest to the coast. Everywhere is brown, the sea and salt burn the plants. We can see where the sea came to in our village too, just by the browned grass and winter wheat. The ‘sea’ smell was very strong and the side of the road was just about there. Some of the tameris trees have fallen as the ground around their roots was washed away. The worst part were the houses that had been flooded, some of them empty ,now. Outside piles of ruined bits and pieces of furniture, wood and other belongings and everywhere the trace of brown silt, now dry, but covering everything at ground level. Olivier said that even as they arrived in the village this morning they could sense that something had happened. He was right.

I parked outside the school which is our arranged pick up point. I used to teach there when I was an assistant. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the teachers having lost some of their pupils.

Olivier is taking the train to go back on Sunday. I’m pleased I don’t have to go there again for a little while

Calm after the storm

The water has all gone on our little bit of coast. The marshes have been drained so the water level is lower than it was before the storm. There are still mountains of stones from the beach that need pushing off the road and back into the beach. Several people drowned in the village where I take Olivier back for his lift to Poitiers. When I went for my leg treatment last week my doctor told me that her husband operated on a man from that village just before the storm and on Sunday they had to tell him that three of his family were gone.

A man was arrested because he’d gone to the mayor of the same village claiming to be in charge of the cleaning up procedures. The mayor was suspicious and made inquiries. It turns out the ‘official’ has already been in prison for organising the building of two kilometres of motorway a few years ago. (the modern version of delusions of grandeur perhaps?). He’s on his way back under lock and key.

The wind has turned around and is now coming from the North-East (Siberia). It has been very cold for over a week and looks like we’ll have to wait for another week to get back into spring mode. It’s lighter in the evenings, so when Rob gets home we go out for a walk, it’s lovely, but so cold.

I have daffodils! About twenty years ago I planted some bulbs and for several years now I’ve seen the leaves but no flowers. I think that some animal or bird must have moved them around or something because they are quite separated out and I have four flowers.

Taken with Rob's iPhone

I'm afraid the quality isn't up to much. As you can see the weather is beautiful - now.


Where did the bridge go?



The road is one big jigsaw puzzle



The cycle path!



No way out of the village this side










This was a field yesterday

A lot of damage can be done within a few hours.

Xynthia

Yesterday night started calmly enough: We went to bed around 10.30 and I wondered if the storm was a false alarm. I woke several times and the wind was blowing and then not. At two thirty the storm was really raging, the trees quite close to the roof were making a lot of noise. I couldn’t sleep, so an hour later I got up to make a cup of tea, just as the kettle boiled the electricity went of and a few minutes later Olivier came in. He had only been two minutes away normally but he got home a lot quicker!!

We woke around seven (I say woke, but we’d hardly slept at all) and the electricity was still off - it came back on just before 9. Once we’d had breakfast and cleared one or two small branches from the foot path we could see there was very little damage around us and the roof was fine.

Like 1999 the sea had come over and across the marshes. The bottom of the road parallel to ours was submerged. We walked round to the beach on the higher road and there was a lot of damage and a lot of water. Roads into the village were flooded and an old path used mainly by hunters had fallen into the water. There was more water damage because it was an exceptionally high tide. One tree had fallen in the park.

The port of La Rochelle is flooded, as well as the station. People the other side of town were rescued from their roofs by helicopter Water has got into the basement at the Chain tower and caused a lot of damage. Rob’s spare bike he kept there is soaked. Fortunately he’s not working today. He did take some photos but there is a problem with his camera so we have lost them all…

One of Olivier’s friends took his bag for him on Thursday when he knocked himself out. He bought it home for the weekend and his house has been flooded so Olivier has probably lost all the notes etc which would have been in his bag for his lectures on Thursday.

It’s still windy, but pleasantly so and the sun is shining, a lovely afternoon for a long walk.