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Lovely snowy weather greeted us when we came home from Provence in the middle of November. And during our rather brief stay in Finland we had snow three times, and three times it all melted away again. Except in Lapland of course, where the 100 years of independence celebrations were accompanied byt two birthday parties and one wedding anniversary. Which obviously meant that we celebrated something every day! There was quite a lot of snow already, and the weather was cold, too cold for skiing anywhere but up at Yllästunturi. Inversion makes the temperatures around ten to fifteen degrees higher up there than down in the valley, and consequently the so called “lämpölatu” – a 3 km long loop – was crowded every single day.

The walk this Sunday was to Gorge d’Oppedette, on the northeastern side of Luberon. We had to drive for almost an hour to get there, but it was surely worth it. Both because of the exciting walk that followed, and because the drive was nice. The colours on the northern slopes of the Luberon are stunning right now, and the road was one of these typically small, winding French roads that run through old villages and beautiful landscape, often too narrow for two cars to pass. Which makes driving challenging and slow.

Gorge d’Oppedette itself is much smaller than Gorge du Verdon, but equally beautiful and quite deep and steep enough for anybodys taste.

At the end of October Météo France said that the absolute drought record for the region is about to be broken. Only 2006 has been a drier year in the region for the last 60 years.nous alerte sur un record absolu de sécheresse dans la région! In Marignane, Bouches-du-Rhône, where the weather station was established in 1921it has rained a total of 30 mm in five months, when the normal average is 209 mm. The agricultural land is drier than anyone can remember. And the risk for forest fires is still acute.