The ‘masterly’ blows
I dazedly hung my bike in the bike shed and staggered up to the Les Tourades house. Madame Senitaire, a local lady who comes to clean A Rocha twice a week was also staggering into the house. “On souffle!” she mumbled. Yes. It blows. She and I had been battling the Mistral–a fierce wind friendly with Provence.
The Mistral, a feisty wind from the north, is funneled down the Rhone valley between the mountains of the Massif Central and the Alps. It blows year-round, mysteriously picking up speed one day and continuing for anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks. Then, just as mysteriously, the constant wind stops, leaving a welcome silence behind.
In the Provençal dialect, ‘mistral’ means ‘masterly,’ and this wind is certainly the master of the landscape. The Mistral sweeps rain clouds, dust, and pollution from the air, creating the sunshine and crystal clear air Provence is renowned for. For centuries, locals have cultivated tall hedges to block the wind, built strong houses to ignore the wind, and bred hardy animals who hardly notice the 60mph gusts.
I am not a local. I noticed immediately and with great joy the silence this morning. The Mistral is over, for now. My cycling days will be easier…for now.
