Once Every Five Years

We've had an interesting last couple of days, and that's because we experienced some weather the French Riviera isn't used to.  It was just a little bit of snow, but you would have thought the world was coming to an end!

Here is a shot of the side of our house just as the snow began to fall

This was about 30-40 minutes later.  It was definitely accumulating, and it was heavy and wet.

First of all, people here do not know how to drive in snow; I was told this kind of weather happens only once every 5 years or so.  Of course no one likes driving in mushy, wet weather, but people who are used to it know that when you feel your car slide just a little, you needn't pull over and stop driving altogether.  But believe it or not, that's what most people did.  They got scared and just stopped driving.   And if they weren't somewhere where they could pull over and park (hello, this is France--we have very few shoulders on our roads here), then people just stopped right in the middle of the street, blocking traffic.  It was maddening. 

Every car in this picture had pulled over and stopped. 
Luckily there was somewhere for them to park in this case,
but the line of cars went all the way back to the previous round-about.

This family is geting chains out of the trunk to put on their tires. 
The snow had been falling for maybe 45 minutes at this point.

The second the snow started falling, Jason and all employees got sent home from work "before driving becomes too dangerous."  It took him a long time to get home, and he finally just drove around people into the wrong lane becuase they literally weren't moving.  By the time he got home, I had received a call from school saying it was cancelled and to come collect my children immediately.  (All grocery stores closed as well, so employees could get home and off the roads as soon as possible.)

We got back in the car and drove all the way back to the girls' school, inching our way there and back, and when we tried to drive home, I was able to take some pictures so you can see the amount of snow we are talking about. 

For Utah, obviously, this is nothing.  But remember, no one has snow removal equipment in this area of France, and the roads here are super narrow, hilly, curvy, and dangerous even when there's no slippage to worry about. People have tiny cars, and the tires are not made for slippery conditions.  I'm normally not scared to drive in the snow, and I have done it all my adult life, but it did make me nervous to drive while so many other drivers on the road were panicking.  I was grateful Jason drove me and the girls all home safely from school.

When we got home, we saw that the heavy, wet snow had destroyed our beautiful mimosa tree that was just starting to bloom.  I was so sad, and I immediately got a broom and tried to knock as much snow as I could off the other trees, especially the olive tree on the side of the house. I was shocked--it really wasn't THAT much snow!

It continued to snow the rest of the day and through the night, but I was still surprised when they cancelled my kids' school the following day as well.  The roads were frozen and slick, and they were just too worried about people's safety.  My girls were thrilled, of course!  I drove to my teaching job, and the roads were a little slick, but it was fine.  But only 4 kids showed up out of 20!  That's just unheard of where I am from.

Maisy couldn't even wait to get her coat on to get out in the snow.

Jenica reminded me she hasn't seen snow in about 2 years.

It was perfect snowman snow!

Two days after the inital snowfall as I write this post, there is still snow on the ground.  It is still cold and barely above freezing.  I am reminded that I don't love cold weather.  I'll be in trouble going back to Utah someday.

You would THINK we have a scraper around here somewhere...