Sunday, August 21, 2011

Not quite ready to relinquish Summer

Jacques Henri Lartigue, Bibi at the New Eden Roc Restaurant, Cap d'Antibes, 1920.

When I lived in England as soon as the August Bank holiday approached it was time to pretty much give up on Summer, thoughts of crisp, autumnal days, boot and wellie clad bracing country walks, cocooning in cashmere, holing up in country pubs and cosy evening's in on comfy sofas, warmed by the heat of a roaring open fire with a good film or book and a good bottle of red, abounded.

No, No, No I am not in England and despite all the September issue glossies showing off autumn/winter fashions I am not giving up on summer just yet, as I sit typing this the temperature outside is 36 degrees Celsius, The Pyrenees is one of hottest areas in France at the present time. The heat is stifling, stepping outside, is like walking into an oven, thank heaven for the thick walled, tiled floored, shuttered, coolness of the old farmhouse in which we live, we are just about managing to keep cool.

After a long summer of looking after others holiday needs, next weekend we are off to La Cote d'Azur for two, long weeks, the first time in ages we have had a two week holiday, I can't wait to swap the late summer humidity of the Pyrenees for the drier heat of The Mediterranean and the breezes coming in off the coast.  The season is long in the East and Autumn does not really start to kick in until mid October, early September is one of the best times to be there, the holiday hoards will have gone so there will be more space on the beaches and the sea will be lovely and warm... Autumn will just have to wait.


Jacques Henri Lartigue, Bibi in Cannes, 1927.

8 comments:

  1. Hello:
    Like you, we too are experiencing temperatures in the mid 30C and set to remain so for the coming week. And, as you say, whilst recently in England, where autumn now seems to be keenly anticipated, we continue to enjoy the summer glad, only yesterday, of a slight breeze from off the Danube!

    Have a wonderful and relaxing holiday in what is, after all, one of the most stylish areas.

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  2. I'm with you. I am nowhere near done with SUMMER. Autumn can wait until Winter at least. Wishing you a fantastic Summer Vacation. (Your destination should guarantee that!)

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  3. We've got a week booked on the North Carolina coast in early October. It will still be beach weather, with no kids! Not time to let it go yet!! Enjoy you time away.

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  4. I'm nowhere near finished with summer either, I like it to last and last but sadly it rarely does! It's been fabulous here all weekend and I spent this afternoon in the garden in a bikini.
    Have a wonderful trip, I'm very envious. xxx

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  5. strangely sultry here in Normandy, but the very first tints of autumn are beginning to show - have a great holiday Dash
    x

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  6. Are you going by motorbike? :)

    Just kidding. Hope you have a lovely time. I don't get to go to the Cote d'Azur any more as my dearly beloved has sold his flat in Nice. Ah well.

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  7. I'm with you! I love fall, but I will not give up my summer one moment before I need to! Enjoy these last days!

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  8. We are close to the Pyrenees too and you're right: it's been like Singapore here for the last couple of days. But I do love walking in bare feet on a tiled floor. And getting up early, as I did this morning, to find it cool enough to work in the garden.

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