"The rain rain rain came down down down, in rushing, rising riv'lets"... Anyone would think I'm not even in the South of France!

So everybody thinks that soggy November days and countless flash floods are a curse that only befalls Britain. Well, I can officially now say with confidence that such an assumption is completely and utterly false.  To say that the past week in Montpellier has been 'damp' would be a giant understatement.  But before you start silently rejoicing and telling me that I am finally getting my comeuppance for my smugness during the thirty degree heat in October, hear me out on this one - this is no ordinary spot of rain.

Place de l'Europe.  Image taken from the BBC

On the 4th of November it was reported that over a year's worth of rain had fallen over the Hérault department of the Languedoc-Roussillon region since the start of November.  That's 700mm of rain, or for those of us still fervently sticking with imperial measurements, that's over 27 inches.  Predictably, Montpellier can be found in the aforementioned Hérault department.  What started out as "alerte orange" being announced on the local news and weather programmes, very quickly became "alerte rouge", and has remained at 'rouge' for several days.  "Alerte rouge" means an absolute vigilance is necessary; dangerous weather conditions of an exceptional intensity are expected.  During "alerte rouge", parents are expected to collect their children from school, and every one is advised to be very careful when travelling, avoid outside leisure activities, and take shelter away from wooded areas.  Its basically an equivalent of what everybody is advised to do if there is a particularly heavy snowfall forecast in Britain, minus the bit about going to the woods of course.


Ironically, I can still remember when the rain first made an appearance a couple of weeks ago.  I was walking from the centre of Montpellier back to the flat when it started spitting, and as I hadn't seen any rain since I moved to Montpellier on the 20th of September, I hadn't anticipated it and therefore found myself brolly-less.  Nonetheless, it would seem that you can take the girl out of England, but you can't quite take the English out of the girl; I actually enjoyed walking along in the rain with my iPod on.  The French who were all scurrying past, hoods up and heads down, seemed to look at me with a particularly incredulous look as I practically skipped past smiling to myself.  There's something comforting about a spot of rain after four, maybe even five weeks, of solid sunshine.  Particularly when you're in one of those moods when everything doesn't quite seem to be going your way; the constant sunshine sometimes felt as though it was mocking me somewhat, but the rain seemed to put Montpellier into a bit of a grump, much to my satisfaction.

Tram ploughing through the water

Having said that, one afternoon of showers and my British desire for a spot of rain had been quelled.  Sure enough, the sunshine did return for a little while after that.  What I wasn't expecting though, was for the sunshine to disappear just as quickly as it had re-appeared, only to be replaced by a week and a half of solid rain and thunderstorms.  I know I haven't been brilliant at keeping track of time since getting here, and time does have a nasty habit of dragging past at snail's pace, but when I say that I can't remember the last time we had a dry day, I really do mean it.  The rain has simply been relentless.  Every now and then it gives up leaving a small window of respite, but before you know it, it will be pouring again.  It's not just the rain though; its the thunder and lightening that goes with it.  I think everyone has become accustomed to the sound of rolling thunder in the afternoon, and flashes of sheet lightening that illuminate the night sky of an evening.


From a day-to-day point of view for me it has provided some minor inconveniences; getting to the supermarket has become quite the effort, going to the pub in the evenings is pretty much impossible without risking life and limb, and given that I only have one pair of waterproof shoes with me, outfit choices have been somewhat narrowed (there's only so many items of clothing that will go with bright pink patent Dr Marten's).  That's not exactly much to grumble over when you consider that many of the towns surrounding Montpellier are currently flooded and without power, whilst school transport has been cancelled and roads have been blocked by falling trees.  This might sound like a fairly standard week for a village in the South West of England, but it would seem that its not entirely normal for Montpellier.  

Aqueducts pre-flooding

As it turns out, the entire of Montpellier is actually built on a flood plane, and to deal with this, there are aqueducts criss-crossing across the length and breadth of the city.  The fact that they have even built the aqueducts signals that flooding probably isn't entirely out of the question, yet it still feels as though this latest deluge of water has come as some sort of a surprise to the Southern French residents.  Perhaps it is uncommon for this time of year, but my housemate Marco has assured me that it does normally rain quite a lot in November.  Then again, when he says it normally rains quite a lot, he might mean once a week;  the French idea of 'quite a lot of rain' is probably pretty different to the English one.  For now, I think we're fairly safe where we are.  I may have accidentally stumbled into a few ankle deep puddles (it was dark and I did swear quite a bit about the fact that I would spend the rest of my evening wearing a soggy sock), and remarked that the water level of the near-by river is exceedingly high, but I don't think I'm in danger of floating away in my bed overnight.  Then again, this rain isn't due to give in until the middle of next week, so I may be needing a dinghy yet...


(For more of the BBC's images, go here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-15613133)