Spikecollie

One of the lovely hangovers of the stormy humidity is that there are lots of mozzies. In my PJs and just been bitten twice and developing nice lumps - who knows how they get in! Mozzies are all over France so bring some bee friendly repellent with you - citronella, bog myrtle...

No organised storms materialised here in Dijon this afternoon. Just thundery showers in one of which I got soaked going for the bus. Most of my visit to the lake was spent in picnic shelters or under trees! A couple of distant CG strikes, some loud rumbles and overhead flashes. The hills got all the T&L as I suggested they would. The nicest thing was the huge raindrops bouncing into the lake and the waterfowl having a bonanza day...

Careful what you wish for! I love flying and love cloud spotting from aloft. I understand the physics of turbulence and I'm a psychologist so I'll hold hands and make anxiety a lot less intense. BUT I get motion sick...so I might need your barf bag and lemon scented wipe. At least I'm honest... On another track...the most uncomfortable I've been on an aircraft is flying from Kiev to Simferopol in Ukraine a few years back. The ominous writing "hack with crash axe here" on the outside, and the harness seatbelts were bad enough - it was an Antonov 24 (check the safety record). The CAT was dire. I tried my relaxation stuff...no good. I shut my eyes and tried to think of something else...no good. I puked and puked and puked. I had to sit in the toilet with the flight attendants for the rest of the flight and I fainted on the bus to the terminal. A lovely German guy who was going to the same place I was going looked after me and came in the cab with me. The kindness of strangers and the weirdness of travel eh...

Always remember you're not flying the plane, the best qualified guy or girl up front is! Turbulence can be physically (and psychologically) uncomfortable and like you I am a frequent flier who is not upset by turbulence, but who can get rather sick when it gets a bit overly lumpy - I hate being sick in front of other people and that makes me a bit anxious! I can't count the number of hands I've had holding so tight onto mine that they've virtually cut off the circulation...and only because I've seen their panic and said "it's ok". Missed approaches are controlled, routine and very safe. I'd rather a missed approach/diversion than an unsafe landing any day... What you describe as a "slam landing" is not abnormal when there is insufficient room on the runway to raise the nose of the aircraft and slow the descent nice and steadily what's called a "flare". Limoges is a prime example of an airport where this is not possible and my husband always panics despite my explanation!

Some moderately funny punning on ukweatherworld and there's something on Twitter. On ukweatherworld they're suggesting that it is a fruit net rather than a fishing net, but it's still a big thing to travel so far up. There are some scary tales of paragliders and hang gliders getting sucked up, when I eventually do my tandem paraglide in the Puy de Dôme I'm going to make sure the instructor has double checked the weather and the cloudscape!

Just had a torrential shower with a rumble thrown in, me thinks this will be an electrical afternoon and evening. I'm going to take a bus to Lac Kir which should give some nice open views, but which has somewhere to shelter - I'd love to head to the hills, but I haven't got the footwear for it.

Don't discount Northern France for storms - remember where the southern UK's imports come from. I've had some awesome storms while in Normandie and a couple of years back a colleague had his car badly damaged by hens egg sized hail - Paris is stunning for storms too (there were some dingers there that I got to see back in February and March when the UK was having it's wild spring)! Prime storm areas are indeed the Pyrenees and areas in and around the massif centrale - (Auvergne, PACA) and yes because it's a Mediterranean climate, the south does get a bit more of a share of the fireworks. Having said the Aquitaine region is no stranger to violent weather - both winter storms (December 1999 was a classic) and thunderstorms which the wine growers of the Bordeaux area dread as the hail causes tremendous damage to the grape crops at this time of year. If you're camping, while they're very exciting at first, heavy and/or persistent storms can be a real pain. We've had to evacuate a campsite that was flooding, and we've had a few times when we needed to go and sit in the car during the worst of the lightning on very exposed sites. Even in a hotel or gite the electricity often goes off when it gets bad in rural areas. The intensity is much greater than anything that we tend to get in the UK and you have to respect that. Having said that - there's nothing nicer than a night time storm to watch...

I will enjoy and will report...time for bed and dreams of storms...bon nuit...

See my post in the "serious discussions" forum. And don't wait five years to put things in motion - find a place you love and put in an offer. Sales move, rightly, slowly in France. And remember you won't make a profit on your purchase for years (look it up!!!) You buy a home, not an investment - and so it should be...

I'm moving permanently Limousin at the end of the summer/beginning of autumn. We bought a house over here three years ago, but it took us a long time to sell our UK house and downsize (we're keeping a small bungalow as a rental prospect as although we are professional bunnies, we kind of gave up on pensions - long story). Let's not digress too much from the storms topic, rather I'll start another one. Suffices to say I have some reasonable advice. BTW all calm here now, but looking forward to a good day out tomorrow whatever the weather - may take the train to Beaune. New topic upcoming in "serious discussion" probs.

Isn't that where the book and film "Parfum" is set - a very weird story but stunningly sensual? A beautiful place. I have had many nights at campsites and at home in France sitting out in the garden watching storms. Before the rain comes, it is the most elemental of experiences watching the lightning flashing over the hills and enjoying the intensely humid air.

I'm in mid-Eastern France (Dijon) right now! The action was here and may well return tomorrow.

Hmmm. It was a tad lumpy at times this afternoon up there (I flew to Paris), but storms are no problem on descent and take off (en route storms are avoided where possible but flying between them when there's no choice can be a bit choppy). Any individual aircraft gets struck on average once a year - work the rest of the probabilities out yourselves, I'm too tired. When lightning does strike (I've had three strikes in a lot of flying) it's dramatic but over very quickly. There is a very bright flash, the cabin lights may flash on and off, and on two of the three occasions the worst result is that I have been actively using the barf bag...

Dijon Longvic METAR progging more for tomorrow too. If it's looking good I may take a tram to somewhere good to take some photos, bearing in mind I only have a mini brolly and one pair of shoes which have to do me for work on Monday - hand luggage travel is a dangerously balanced art form!

Just had some fantastic lightning here in Dijon. The storms started just as the train came into the hills before Dijon, but didn't hit the town until I arrived at the station. Got to the hotel and flung everything down, opened the window and watched the display. A sky full of Altocumulus castellanus, so more action might be on the way. There was heavy rain in Paris when I arrived there and there were a couple of episodes of near coffee spilling turbulence (this is always proportional to the temperature of the beverage of course) en route.

Sorry for the double unfinished post, the WiFi is being a bit weird here...

I bet it's fun down there: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28056363 I got wet on my dog walk, but only from the soaking grass and heather...

Glastonbury looks like having a bit of wetness. I haven't been for years, but the last time I went people had heatstroke rather than trench foot! I'm heading to Paris on Saturday afternoon and then onto Dijon, looks like another few days of shower dodging - ah well!

Some big clouds building here, and getting into the car after work was unbearably hot!

It should be lovely. Where exactly are you going?

A couple of nice little storms yesterday evening, we planted some hedge plants in one of them while doggie delighted in baying at the sky - he loves his storms too! Off to Limousin tomorrow to enjoy more or less, it looks like, what you'll be enjoying over here...

Just had some thunder, torrential rain and hail here. Still very dark...

Well we're heading out walking up the Dales tomorrow, come what may! Off tonight up to Wensleydale. There's nothing happening yet in France - I've just been on the phone to someone in Dijon which is pretty well over East, but storms are forecast. Talk on Sunday night/Monday if we don't drown, get struck by lightning or walk too far because nothing happens at all...

Ooh, I don't know! Look North weather had that little flashy flashy icon for Saturday...we're probably headed up the Dales walking so either nothing will happen or we'll spend hours huddled in a cave sitting out the storms...

The MO have now put the UK in a yellow blanket for Saturday with only Scotland poking out of the top!