Sunday 1st August.
Sunday morning; love and croissants and fresh framboises and lashings of coffee. If there is any better way to start the day I don’t want to hear it.
It’s a strange day. The sun is very hot even by 10am, but cloud is building up on the horizon. The air is oppressive but Robert tells us it won’t rain as the rain clouds always come from one direction…..and this isn’t it. We’re relieved. We don’t want the perfect weather to end. Phillipa is arriving today but we have no idea when. We shop for essentials so that we will be prepared and then return to watch the marathon in the athletics. Tony goes into a frenzy washing sheets and cleaning the upstairs room for Philly. He’s very excited. Even though we moved to Melbourne we still only see the girls about once a year. To catch up with both of them in two weeks in Provence is actually quite odd but very serendipitous.
We’re on tenterhooks until the text message arrives telling us that she will arrive on the 10.33 from Marseilles and can we pick her up at Nimes….we needn’t have bothered about supper but at least now we know. I cook dinner early and Tony goes to have a nap. The sky is darkening and there are ominous rumblings in the distance. But it won’t rain. Robert, who has lived here his entire life, says so.
At 7pm the storm breaks - The thunder is loud enough to burst eardrums and the lightning show is spectacular….much more impressive than quatorze Juillet fireworks could ever be:- But it doesn’t rain…..Until…..
The deluge opens up at about 7.30 and it’s time to get out a hammer and nails and build an ark. Sorry Robert - mother nature is poking her tongue out at you. I’m reminded of the floods five years ago and there’s a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that we will be flooded in and Phillipa will be left waiting at Nimes station wondering why we never came. The power goes off and I search for emergency supplies of candles. There is still just enough light for me to see things but the sky is getting blacker and the rain ever heavier. A huge thunderclap wakes Tony and he finds me on the terrace still gob smacked by the lightning show. I’m worried about him driving in this torrent but the storm can’t last very long - can it?
By 8.30 we decide to drive to Nimes together - no sense in sitting in a dark house alone for hours and so we take off. Only people on a mission ( like us) or complete idiots, are out on the roads, a solid sheet of water follows us all the way. Just before the Nimes turnoff I take a call on Tony’s mobile. It’s Philly - The Nimes trains from Marseilles are cancelled and she’s coming into Avignon…. Which is about 40kms from Uzes. We change direction but the storm is determined to stay with us. By 10pm we reach Avignon and the storm has been raging for 3 hours and shows no sign of stopping. Phillipa is quite emotional at seeing us and Tony melts and hugs her for a long time. She chats away all the way home and brings us up to speed, but a sideward glance shows me that Beloved is feeling the tension of the drive and is a lot less confident than he sounds with thunder and lightning doing in his head and the rain making visibility negligible. But years of rally driving have made him an exceptionally good driver and we reach Bourdiguet without mishap.
The power is still off - though the single street light in the alleyway is working. We light six candles, drink mineral water ( it doesn’t even occur to us to boil water on the stove for a cuppa) and raid the fridge, scoffing pate, Roquefort with fig jam and cold chick all with fresh bread. At midnight, the storm starts to abate. It’s worn itself out with five hours of spectacular fury and we are all still standing so, grumbling away and with the occasional flash, it makes it’s way back to the storm storage shed until another day.
Walking into our bedroom we realise that the roof has leaked badly in two places and there are huge pools of water on the wooden floors. Tony paddles through it and collapses on the bed. He’s soon asleep, but Philly and I sit up and talk till after 1am. It’s so good to see her and realise what a marvellous young woman she has grown into. She takes a candle and the tiny torch to light her way to bed. Beloved has left a lighted candle on my nightstand so I can find my way and I take another candle to the bedroom and try to do Sudoku by candlelight but without success. The rain has eased to a light shower and the wet earth smells wonderful. Everything is clean and alive and there’s the novelty of a cool chill in the night air that makes me pull a doona over my feet. I blow out the candles and snuggle into Tony’s back and drift away. Great day.
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