Weather problems in France

Final day for a while in BOA. Caught up with a friend of ours Birgitta, for coffee in the Fat Fowl. Lovely to see her and so pleased we found a moment to get together. We first met back in 2008 I think it was when we were on the local Arts Festival committee. Birgitta loves glass and designs some beautiful things. She's always looking for ways to develop her ideas and techniques and her enthusiasm is infectious.  Went for a quick stomp round town, grabbed some lunch and then back to base to pack up.

Checked emails and found a message from our next door neighbour, Isabelle. Seems there was a massive storm in Cravant last night. Serious hail and rain that has done a lot of damage round the region. Our friends Jacqueline and Norbert, who have been mentioned in previous blogs, had 2m.50 flooding in their cave which they'd just gone down to clear out. Another neighbour's top soil for their new garden, which was recently delivered, has collapsed into Isabelle's drive way. Vehicles have been damaged. The firemen came out to help etc. 

Of course the additional problem is with the vines. Vouvray has suffered between 30 -100% damage. That's devastating stuff. No idea yet what the news is locally, but can't imagine Cravant has escaped unscathed. Isabelle was going to check our garden as a lot of plants and vegetables have been flattened. Haven't heard anymore. Will find out more hopefully later on or tomorrow.

These images come from the Nouvelle Republique which is a syndicated paper across France.