Steamin'

The weather has been, and will be for quite a few days yet, pretty crap by Côte d'Azur standards. But yesterday we had to eat on the terrace, despite the cold, because the stairwell was being painted with stabilising solution, which made the inside of the house smell like aircraft refuelling time at an airport.

When the sun does peep through, though, for a minute or two, the power of the rays burns off the accumulated water in minutes, raising a strange dance of vapour, as if the buildings were all steaming pans full of spaghetti.