Snow Day in Brittany

It started snowing on and off very lightly Friday or Saturday when I was in Brest. I arrived in Plouaret Tregor, a town nearby, Sunday night to find a couple inches of snow--more than the centimeter or so that had stuck in Lannion.

Every day we have had fewer and fewer students in school as public transportation closes or parents withdraw their boarding house students from school before the weather gets worse.

Today I woke up to a few inches of snow on the roof outside my window and constant snow. It must have started snowing sometime after midnight and has continued since. I've heard both that we have red alert and orange alert for the coming day, and that "the worst" is to arrive towards 4pm today.

I spent about an hour and a half walking around the city taking pictures and running errands as the snow fell. It's really not too cold, but the slipperiness is certainly a problem. With the roads being iced & snowed over, few cars are on the road which makes for a nice change from the usual weekday traffic we have on our road (being right next two the three private schools and not far from the public high school).

There are many more people in the streets than usual. Wednesday is normally a half day in France anyways, but many students won't go to school. With all the students that can't walk to school not attending class, many teachers are forced to not advance with their courses, meaning the two or three students who do show up have wasted time.

Everyone is strolling about, enjoying their walk. Some kids are building snowmen and attempting to sled or at least slide on the ice, and snowball fights are eminent. People say hello when they pass you, and you have the impression that they're not really headed anywhere, but are just out and about (as even those who have someplace to be are forced to go more slowly. The city has already had up its Christmas decorations for weeks now, I suppose waiting for the right moment, and somehow they also snuck up a speaker system form which they are now playing music. It all adds up for a very surreal and strange environment.