have long suspected,that 2013 is going to be the year without a
summer.
This weather prediction, from a group of meteorologists, is specially directed at the French speaking part of Switzerland, but it is much more widely applicable across Europe. France has seen some appalling weather throughout May, with widespread rain and winds and
temperatures far below the seasonal norms. In Normandy and Brittany towards the end of May, temperatures were plunging below zero, with 50 per cent of normal sunshine. At Sainte-Maxime in the Var, down in the south of France, a waterspout was spotted on the beach. Looking at photographs taken in the past few days of villages in the Vosges mountains in eastern France, on the borders with Switzerland, the impression is of snow-laden places in shots that could easily have been taken in the middle of winter. There’s no doubt that this abysmal weather is due to climate change. Ice melts in the Arctic are having their effect and so too is the mass of Polar air pushing down over Europe for many weeks now. Climate change measures that should have been put in place years ago
could have helped; it’s probably too late now to stop the rot.
Over the years, we’ve experienced traditional summer weather in different parts of France. Naturally, the Cote d’Azur in summer has always been very hot and one of the most uncomfortable places we were in during a summer heatwave was Strasbourg. On the other hand, Paris in the middle of winter
can be cold, wet and miserable. Perhaps the most equitable weather we’ve experienced in France came in Menton, in the far south-east, one December, when the temperature during the day was hovering around 14 degrees Centigrade, making it ideal for strolling round the town. But in the past year or two, the Cote d’Azur has had some very unseasonal weather, with large amounts of rain and very windy conditions, so even this notion of mild mid-winter on the Cote d’Azur can
no longer be guaranteed.
All this rain, cold and lack of light is having a detrimental effect on crops, which are now weeks behind their normal growing patterns. In Alsace, so many fields are flooded from the non-stop rain
that farmers despair of having anything like a normal harvest this “summer”. At least, there’s one bright spot amid all this gloom. The French agriculture minister, Stéphane Le Foll said that the
Government isn’t going to impose any tax on wine, which is after all, a €7 billion industry in France, even if the idea of drinking wine has become less cool, especially among many young people.
In another respect, too, the government is refusing to budge. Labour minister Michel Sapin says that they are not going to change the laws on Sunday opening. Sunday opening of stores is very limited; furniture stores and garden centres can open for limited periods on Sunday, although DIY shops can’t. Recent surveys show that the majority of French people want the restrictions on Sunday opening removed, yet paradoxically, a majority of people in France don’t want to work on a Sunday. It’s all a big contrast with Ireland,where almost round the clock opening has been the norm for years. On a
Sunday in Dublin, you can go shopping in department stores and supermarkets without any restrictions. Smaller shops usually remain closed on a Sunday but if you can’t resist shopping in Tesco on a Sunday, there’s nothing to stop you doing just that.
From our own experiences in the 7th arrondissement in Paris, it’s hard to find a shop open after 6pm in the evening, let alone on a Sunday, although at the Eiffel Tower end of the 7th., many smaller shops do open for much longer. And if you go to less middle class, more working class districts of Paris, you’ll find a profusion of smaller shops and supermarkets open even on Sundays.
It may even become a debating topic in the next elections for mayor of Paris, due next March. One of
the candidates, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, usually known by her initials, NKM, is running on behalf of the right-wing UMP party and early predictions say she could be the winner. One of her avowed aims, if she becomes mayor, is tackle the restrictions on shop opening hours, so that tourists in Paris can get the same shopping experience as they do in London. This of course arouses the ire of
traditionalists, who see such a move as yet another nod in the direction of Anglo-Saxon cultural and social values, which of course are contradictory to those of French tradition. NKM also has another aim if she becomes mayor, a big cleanup on the pickpocketing and other crime that’s endemic around major tourist sites in Paris.
She’ll be battling it out with the left-wing Anne Hidalgo, who is the heir apparent to the present socialist mayor of Paris, Bernard Delanoe, who has been in office since 2001. The choice of two
female candidates from opposing sides of the political spectrum in next year’s mayoral race in Paris means that for the first time in the 2,000 year history of the city, it will have a woman mayor. Yet such is the male-orientated conservatism of the French political system that in 40 of France’s largest
cities,those with a population of over 100,000, only five have women mayors. Conservatism in France is also seen in the continuing large scale protests over the new law to allow same sex marriage; in many ways, France is so deeply conservative that many of its ways of organising life owe more to the 19th century than the 21st., so progressive moves like the upcoming all female contest for the job of mayor of Paris are to be widely welcomed.
A contest of another kind has just taken place in Cannes, the annual film festival. Once famous for the starlets photographed on the beach, that kind of publicity has long since become old hat. But this
year, hardly anyone can remember what films were on offer, but instead, this year’s Cannes film festival is going to go down in history for the two audacious jewellery heists that took place during it. There’s also been intense speculation and comment about the new partner of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former md of the International Monetary Fund, once considered the front runner
for role of French president, before scandal overtook him. He appeared at the Cannes Film Festival with his new partner, Myriam L’Aouffir. It turns out that she is of French Moroccan origin and she is the head of online communications at France Télévisions. Strauss-Kahn and his long suffering wife, Anne Sinclair, a long time presenter on French television, and fabulously wealthy in her own
right, divorced in March of this year. Anne Sinclair is now the editorial director of the Huffington Post in France, run in association with Le Monde. Her new partner is Pierre Nora, an historian. It’s all bit of a merry-go-round in the best French tradition.
Meanwhile, a great loss to popular French culture came with the demise of Georges Moustaki at the age of 79, described as one of the great voyagers of the French chanson. He created a whole string of
hit songs, including Milord, which he wrote in 1958 and which became a favourite piece for Edith Piaf.She was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris in 1963 and George Moustaki is buried just metres away from her. Moustaki’s life is a great illustration of the often mutli-cultural make-up of France. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to Jewish parents who had emigrated
there from Greece. His birth name was Giuseppe Mustacchi and even though he had lived in France for most of his life, he only became a naturalised French citizen in 1985.
Finally, if you’re looking for something uplifting to do in France this “summer”, no better place than Normandy. It’s an excellent part of France, with a fine historical and cultural tradition and has
just as much to offer as the south. The Festival Normandie Impressioniste is taking place until the end of September, highlighting the Impressionists’ involvement across five départements. Museums such as the Musée des Beaux-Arts in both Caen and Rouen are having big exhibitions on the subject, while the Musée André Malraux in Le Havre is depicting the relationship between the painter Pissaro and the Normandy ports. Then of course in Giverny, between Paris and Rouen, the Musée des Impressionists is showing off its wares, just beside the remarkable gardens at Giverny, restored by Monet,and one of France’s prime tourist sites. It’s perhaps appropriate in what looks likely to be a rather wet “summer”,that the water-based delights of Monet’s garden will be so much a key
part of this festival of Impressionism.