22nd June, Sunday

Today has been a chill day. The plan was to spend the day in and around the swimming pool. I couldn’t wait to go for a swim, but when we arrived last night, so did the mistral. According to Laurant Brun, our landlord, the mistral blows from October to the beginning of June, and should really have died down by now. But unfortunately it hasn’t. Today we had to put up with winds of up to 120 km/h, reducing to 90 km/h tomorrow, and hopefully nothing thereafter. This has meant that we’ve had to eat inside and I still haven’t been in the pool. Although the sun was out, it didn’t feel very warm at all, and the pool was freezing cold. Another day perhaps.

We were able to lie in the sun and get a bit of a tan though – well, I hope we have managed to get a bit of a tan!

We found out that the shops were going to close at noon today, and that they wouldn’t be open tomorrow, so we all rushed out to try and get there before closing. We wanted to have a braai (BBQ) this afternoon and couldn’t find firelighters previously. After getting a little lost, we eventually found the supermarket and found all we needed, before heading back. By the time we got back Laurent had cleaned the pool for us again – he’d done it yesterday too, but due to the wind it was dirty again!

It’s been a nice day though. I finished one of the best books I have read in a while, called “The Outcast” by Sadie Jones (I think). Not really your average light-hearted holiday read, but brilliantly written. How one can have such insight to emotions you haven’t personally experienced, is awe inspiring.

Now everyone is reading while I write. So peaceful.