In St Jean de Luz one is rarely dressed correctly for the weather. In any given day one can be under an umbrella, swimming in the sea and sheltering from the wind and/or sun. It is rather like Scotland in that there are a myriad of conditions within a short space of time, although it is very much warmer and there is far more sunshine.Our friends here moaned about how dreadful winter was, to me it lasted about two weeks and even that was bearable. Since April it has been warm if not hot with everything taking place outdoors. Even before then we had managed to squeeze a few days onto the beach. I am led to believe that the warmth and sun will be with us until late October with the caveat that on every third day it will rain, to date it tends to rain late afternoon on every second day. Given we arrived in October last year I can testify that it was indeed warm then and I was swimming in the sea daily. So summer is basically seven months, autumn lasts through November and December though is pleasantly warm if wet, my final swim of the year was 22nd December. Winter the two aforementioned weeks in January, including a touch of snow and a hurricane, with spring filling in the time from January till April.
Back to daily weather routines. Most mornings we awake to sunshine hitting the mountains. By mid morning we are either still enjoying sunshine, in which case it tends to stay sunny all day, or there is light cloud. On days like the latter the light cloud clears by lunchtime but portents rain later in the day which either sticks into the night or clears for a pleasant evening. All changes revolve around the tidal patterns which are accompanied by sharp winds with added precipitation courtesy of the Pyrenees. I will agree that it is like a warm Scotland, though I am yet to see any midgies. Also, the Basques don't seem quite so hung up on the weather as we have been used to, weather news lasts seconds rather than minutes.
Basque of the day:- weather :: eguraldi
