Le Mistral

May 11, 2019

We stepped off the train into Provence and immediately started bundling up. The wind!

“Le mistral (pronounced mee-stral),” chuckled the old bearded man leaving the train beside us.

The mistral, the wind, occurs for several days at a time about a hundred days every year. Something about precisely-placed pressure systems and the valley pushes a strong, dry, cold wind southward towards the Mediterranean.

Sunny as can be, and yet a steady 40, 50, even 100 mile-per-hour wind has you ducking into stone-walled cafes and taverns and devouring lamb, ratatouille, and glasses upon glasses of red wine as though it were the dead of winter. Or that’s what we did anyway.💨🥘🍷

The wind is the main reason Provence is so sunny and clear—and why people say the light here is unlike anything you’ll see anywhere else.

The mistral also makes for some of the most beautiful sounds. The rustling of tree leaves feels deafening at times, but in a refreshing, energetic sort of way.

Like these paintings—breezy and energetic like the mistral.