Born in the USA
Brittany’s storm 2023 was born in the north of the USA. On Monday 1st of November, a small polar current from the North and a small warm current from the South meet each oher.
Nevertheless, they did not share “un amour tendre” (a tender love), as in Juliette Gréco’s song. They confront each other, throw nasty glares, swell and twirl, they cannot stop and continue their infernal danse towards South-West of the Brittanic Isles. On Wednesday 2nd, their celestial combat nears the cost of Brittany.
Let’s get ready
The first effects of its implacable advance are expected on the breton peninsula in early evening
We live in a mobile home, during the renovation of our house. Hundred years old trees are spreading their branches above our modest abode. Having experienced (and survived but that is another story) the 1987’s Brittany storm, we estimate that we would be better off in front of the house. We hope… So we settle in our van for the night.
We are lucky, the temperature is quite mild. Ideal for camping ! The day has been sunny, but I am expecting the worse… The calm before the storm… I can hear the wind blowing, becoming more gusty. A few times during the night, I get frightened. I can feel the wind rushing under the van and shaking it. Still, I manage to get a bit of sleep.
Brittany’s storm Ciaran : surveying the damage
Brittany’s storm Ciaran has been raging all night. At the break of dawn, my husband Nicholas gets up. I am still num with sleep when he returns and says : “Gabrielle, we’ve had a bit of a small disaster!… The polytunnel and the cabin (his workshop) are king of flattened…”
Wow ! I am not numb anymore ! I jump out of bed and have a look… The “small disaster” consist of a 200 years old and 30m high oak lying accross our buildings. Isn’t it IRONIC ? As per the Alanis Morissette song. Of all the trees around our land, only one has toppled down, and it had to be the biggest. Only a few days earlier, Nicholas was telling how pleased he was to finally have, for the 1st time in his life, a workshop. As for me, the polytunnel was my domaine. A promess of “the good life” ahead. My own pride and joy… Apart from wool, of course !!!
We do not know where to start… Indeed, our “camp” ressembles a disaster zone.
Ha ! Removing the branches which are obstructing the entrance to the mobile home might be a good idea. When falling, the tree damaged the one next to it. A branch has made a hole in our roof and a whole lot of others are dangling above it. This is a bit precarious; if you ask me… So we hide the hole with huge bags of wood chips (I knew they were going to be handy one day!). That should stop the water raining in. However, we cannot go back and live in there until the branches dangling above are sorted out. It is just too dangerous..
Despite the incessant rain and wind, we manage to clear a bit of the debris. Right now the rest seems a bit too overwhelming. I am starting to realise the scale of the work needed to return to some king of normal… and I am not rejoicing.
We salvage what we can
The wind and the rain have come a bit down.
I imagine that I am attending an extreme boot camp. After all the work invested in my polytunnel, no xay my green tomatoes, burried under branches and debris, are going to waste ! So I put my kneepads on… and I CRAWL !!! Not a single tomato is allowed to escape me ! Here we go, jams and chutneys ! Well, my training wasn’t that good. Nicholas had to come to my rescue… I got tangled in strings a wires. And I ate mud ! I could’nt untangle myself. Fortunately, I am laughing now…
Nicholas does what he can, weather permitting…
The task seems GIGANTIC. it will take weeks to clear the mess, precious time which could have been used to renovating our house so we can finally move in next winter. I am starting to have doubs about that..
All that would not fit in the mobile home and had to be kept in a dry place were in the workshop, our freezer and my grand-mother’s wood stove among them.
But most importantly, Nicholas best wood working tools, loads of spoons and bowls to finalise, are buried under the fallen trunc. Weeks of patient work achieved with his bare hands…
Nicholas manages to crawl under the debris. Again, fate is taunting us : his best toosl, his wood carvings are completely smashed under the heavier part of the tree…
On the other hand, my wool can be salvaged. Broken boxes but somehow protected from the rain. Our adorable companion cat Miaow Miaow Prrttt who had made a home next to my boxes, gets out unharmed ! Bless her little soul and her cotton socks !!!
Brittany’s storm or not, we’ll see the bright side…
Of course, confronted by a crisis, one has to see the positive side…
We have always shown resilience in hard times.
I reconnect with my sens of adventure. I was starting to have enough of the sedentary lifestyle, but now, I cannot complain, can I?
In fact, I am down, I am high, shaken like a yoyo !!! Youppie!!! En effet, je suis en bas, en haut, en bas, en haut, secouée comme un yoyo !!! Youppie !!!! I am now camping, great ! Arrrgh ! I’m camping, it’s terrible, I’m fed up… But no ! I am on holidays ! I have left my sweet caravane with it’s beautiful wood burner to take holidays 50 meters away, in my van without heating!
It is an ADVENTURE, that, isn’t it?
I set up a a makeshift kitchen among the cement bags in the house. I get the candles out, it’s beautiful. Nothing like a flame, as small as it is, to bring some warmth to one’s heart.
Although this is not what we had in mind for our 1st night in the house, on the 3rd day, we move to the attic. The insulation has been completed a few days ago and it is very confortable ! A bedroom bigger than our mobile home !
I ust have to remember where I am, if I wake up in the middle of the night. No door or wall protecting the staircase… Ah ! That would be an adventure I wouldn’t forget, if I end up in hospital; I know someone it happened to…
“Alone we can do so little ; together we can do so much.” (Helen Keller)
This citation could not be so true. It is also true that in a time of crisis, we learn very quickly who we cannot count on, unfortunately… But life has also a way to sometimes bring wonderful surprises.
Despite the fallen trees on the roads, the electricity being cut, the humidity getting into everything, the grim of it all, their 2 young children asking for their inconditionnel (and continuel) attention, Léna and Yves-Marie brave the obstacles in order to keep the Ti Melen open. This is the hub of Plourac’h, its beating heart…
In truth, is there that people rallye for a chat, for a bit of human warmth, for a cup of coffee, a joke, a knitting session on Tuesdays, some live music from time to time… However, on the morning of the 2nd, the joviality stays at bay. Everyone, me included, is in a competition for the best “the apocalypse knights have arrived!” face.
Obviously, on that day, the inhabitants of Plourac’h are there to share their consternation and, for the next few days, whatever news they can grab, for the lack of internet et TV.
Brittany’s storm Ciaran : all clouds have a silver lining
The Brittany’s storm of 2023 has brought some sorry moments… Indeed, I got discouraged and overwhelmed by the situation. But it never lasted very long. Because there are those other moments, those little gestures of kindness and empathy which does that, as the Phoenix is reborn of the ashes, Hope and Joy always bubble under the surface.
Thank you so much to those king souls who providing us with what we needed for our makeshift kitchen, those who told us their house was open if we needed shelter, those who have offered their help and an attentionate and compationate ear.
And above all, thanks to PROVIDENCE, which has placed on our path the wonderful Hervé. Without him, we might never have met Pierre, who has rendered our return to the warmth of our mobile home possible, cutting those menacing dangling branches
An eternel gratitude to Hervé and his 4 mates, who turned up each with a chainsaw in hands. Mes beautiful warriors ! Without them, we would still be battling. They have saved us weeks of work. As was saying Georges Brassens in his song “L’auvergnat“… Your act of benevolence and generosity dans mon âme brûle encore à la façon d’un feu de joie (is still burning in my soul in the manner of a bonfire).
