There’s a mistral a’coming

 

There’s a mistral a’coming. 

While finishing a small painting outdoors under an unusually cloudy sky, I found myself pushing against a bit of wind. 

Could this be? The Mistral?

I’d never heard of this before two nights ago with some  fellow residents at La Maison De Beaumont (Provence) One spoke in almost a whisper about the Mistral she had experienced some weeks before.  I’d had some wine so wasn’t sure this ‘windy day’ experience was as pernicious as I thought I’d heard. However I do remember thinking —the way she described it—it could be the fitting beginnings of a gothic suspense story.  As in ‘the mistral rose up’

In the world of weather, the Mistral (le maestrale) is a cold, dry wind that follows the Rhône river toward the Mediterranean.  Not just a gust, these winds can bend Van Gogh’s cypress trees sideways. 

IT’S SAID its eerie quality can drive folks mad and once, even served as a defense for murder. As in ‘the Mistral made me do it’

For centuries, architecture here  has been designed to fortify against the winds. (And, a-hem, conquering armies  But that’s not what we’re talking about here)

Some accounts say it always lasts for only odd numbers of days. 

The good news is: 

The after-affects contribute to the normally luminous, cloudless skies here (aka throw a stick and hit a landscape painter) and the hospitable dry climate for grapes (aka drank too much wine and got scared about wind) 

It’s featured in music and art— we remember the unsettling wind as a powerful plot point in the movie Chocolat. 

All I know (read in a whisper), is I won’t be painting outside for 1 or 3 days. Not until   I revisit some Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche. 

See you in the other side.