It's snowing big white pompoms here in the beautiful, sunshiney south of France. The snow is coming down fast and thick like a heavy rain. It's blanketing the trees and roads and fields in pretty white fluffy stuff that nobody from this neck of the woods has a clue how to function in. Everyone in the clinic is cackling about how (and if) they will get home and back for work tomorrow.
We are promised this White Christmas weather for 3 full days. Nobody from around here will be able to drive very far. They will slide right off the roads. Ditches will be strewn with abandoned Renaults and Peugeots and Mercedes and Audis. The whole world will slow right down and the crunch of unsteady footfalls will echo about the villages.
Last time this happened was in 1985. People with broken bones were scattered about everywhere. The emergency room looked like a Breughel painting. People all crammed in and in pain. Babies wailing. Women moaning. Men swearing. Doctors and nurses up all night, overworked and short tempered.
When finally the snow stopped, the streets and roads and sidewalks iced up which caused more disaster. Flip flops don't work too well when walking on ice.
From my bed I am watching 3 tall out-the- window cypress soldiers fast turning white. Olive trees look like ice lollies. Somebody's swimming pool is drowning. I'm glad to be safely incarcerated in La Clinique des Oliviers where it's warm as toasted baguette slices with warm butter sliding about on the surface. Vive la France and single payer health insurance!
