Louisa McCabe Art

We Had A Heatwave

Louisa McCabeComment

FRENCH VOCABULARY: Climatisée: "Air conditioning," as in une salle climatisée roughly translated as “we have air conditioning. Canicule: which means “a heatwave”.

You get my drift? It was very hot last month. Brittany is a generally damp and chilly place, with occasional summery weeks in the summer. 95f/33c degrees is rare in our parts but is increasingly common. Despite this growing awareness of severe heat moments, most Bretons remain unprepared.

Some of our meager supply of cafes have cottoned on to this and are doing joyful business with une salle climatisée. The pub is in an old traditional stone building and keeps cool and fresh even though it’s not climatisée and outside is blasting sunshine.

My studio is a new build with lots of windows and wonderful light. This means in the hot weather that it gets ferociously hot. I’m experimenting with fans but I suspect in the good weather I will be painting out on the porch. That’s as close as I can get to une salle climatisée.

This story is from my monthly pdf magazine Living & Painting in France. Click here for your free subscription.