The Vanishing Point

la pluie – rain
le temps – weather
Paris sous la pluie – Paris in the rain
jour après jour – day after day
maudite – damned; la maudite pluie – damned rain
un orage – a storm; a thunderstorm
un parapluie – umbrella
la météo – the weather report
trempé(e) – soaked; soaking wet
C’est pas normal ! – It’s not normally like this, it isn’t usually like this; This isn’t normal
Qu’est-ce qu’on peut faire ? C’est comme ça. – What can you do? It’s just how it is.
il pleut des cordes – it’s raining cats and dogs (literally “it’s raining ropes”)

******

I snapped this photo back in December, but I might as well have taken it yesterday, given the temps we’ve been having lately. Springtime here was unseasonably warm and gloriously sunny, but ever since we officially hit “summer”, jour après jour, it feels like there’s been nothing but la maudite pluie. After a month of almost daily orages, even when la météo predicts that it’ll be nice out, I don’t dare leave the house without my parapluie, for fear I’ll end up completely trempée.

“C’est pas normal !” my French friends keep saying, clucking their tongues in disapproval and shaking their heads reproachfully at the sky. “The weather in July is usually so much better than this.”

Oh well, qu’est-ce qu’on peut faire ? C’est comme ça.  Even sous la pluie, Paris is still beautiful, and although picnics might be off the table for now (pun intended), there are always the city’s many museums, art galleries and ornate covered passages available for frittering away a rainy afternoon.

And every cloud has a silver lining: When il pleut des cordes and I’m stuck indoors, it’s an effective cosmic kick in the pants to finally start sorting through the literally hundreds and hundreds of photos that I’ve taken since I got here…  hence the photo from December, which I now get to share with you!
–

Paris souvenir vendors are well-prepared for the inclement weather.

––

This entry was posted on August 8, 2011 at 11:52 am and is filed under Expat Life, France, Paris, pluie, rain.

Tags: expat impressions, expat life, France, French language, French vocabulary, Paris, Paris expat, pluie, rain