Huge storms in the Charente - july 2018

We were lucky here at the montaurand chambres d'hotes

a couple of days ago a humungoid storm smashed through the charente passing through the dordogne , angouleme and near cognac too i believe - it was really quite scary ....the true power of nature is revealed.

The sky went black and i mean deep black. Huge wind gusts appeared out of nowhere bending huge trees in half. One pair of our shutters is held back in place by a 20mm iron bar - it bent in half with the power of the wind.

We had a few leaks where the roof just couldnt cope with the torrential rain that fell and we had some broken branches.

Wew have friends not far away form us with huge old trees 60 foot high blown down by the storm , holes in the roof and one friend had her windows blown in. Yikes.

About 20 km from us there were a couple of villages who took the brunt of the storm - we were just I think on its edge.

700 homes ( yes 700!) lost their roofs or were partially destroyed with gold ball size hail trashing cars and huge trees falling everywhere - power out, roads blocked - like a war zone.

Last time this happened i believe was the early 90s in the dordogne - we had a really lucky escape - the sheep were well miffed with us too as we had finished shearing them one hour before the storm suddenly arrived - very wet and not happy!

Today thought, back to the usual blue skies and 30C sunshine of the charente - yum!