Scenes from hell

See also extras.

A huge pall of smoke and the constant drone of Canadairs and Dashes since 1 pm. A fire started near the autoroute around 10 km away (no doubt by some f*cking idiot tossing a fag end out of a car window). 30C and windy ... it soon spread. When I went out for a walk at 4 pm it didn't look that menacing, but since then it's got totally out of control despite hundreds of firefighters, five Canadairs, and four Dashes. Walking out of the village at 6:30, I could see the flames on the ridge just beyond my favourite pylon as the fire raced towards Fabrezan. Apparently due to the flames licking the high-tension line, 80,000 homes are without power, but not us, proof that our beloved pylons are irrelevant to our electricity supply.

It was a relief to feel the wind blowing into my face as I walked back to the village, but I was still feeling quite stressed. Not helped by a neighbour sitting on the bench outside our house spontaneously starting to rant about vaccine passes, loss of freedoms ... I couldn't take it any more and stomped indoors to relax by cooking dinner and pouring myself a glass of wine.

As it happened, we'd been along that stretch of autoroute early this morning. S decided a couple of days ago that despite the quarantine rules, he'd go and visit his mum for the first time since Christmas 2019. I dare say the British government might see sense about the stupid Amber+ rating specially for France, but then again maybe they won't, and he decided he might as well seize a window of opportunity. I'm happy to say his journey went very smoothly. The airport was deserted when we arrived, and we had a quick breakfast in the cafe. There were only 10 people on the flight to Edinburgh. Then bus to Waverley station, fish and chips and real ale for lunch, the only passenger in first class on the train to Darlington and taxi to his mum's. Of course now he's got to quarantine for at least six of the ten days he's staying, despite being double vaccinated ...