Snow… et, alors?

Yes, for the past few days it has been snowing almost non-stop here. Although there’s currently maybe 10-15 cm on the ground, the amount of inconveniences it’s caused have been severely disproportionate to  this meagre number. Personally, I’m not that into snow. I’m used to it, it comes (eventually) every winter, even if it doesn’t stay long. It’s good for skiing, and for keeping my brother in an eternal good mood. That being said, it could not have been more welcome after weeks and weeks of non-stop , dreary, chill-to-the-core-of-your-bones rain. The air has finally transitioned from chilly and damp to dry and fresh and altogether just puts me in a better mood. But alas, Parisians with their metropolitan mentality similar to that of any other big city citizens in the world, experience a personal anger at this change of weather that inconveniences their daily lives and may in fact cause them to walk a little less slowly down the street (the horror…) It’s not that it doesn’t snow here; it does. Just not often, and not a lot. Nobody likes rain, but at least people are prepared for it, used to it, and accustomed to it. They are not accustomed to snow, and this leaves everybody on their most peculiar behaviour.

As I left for my long run this morning, I was equipped in my winter running gear, the same outfit I have been wearing to run in the snow for the past 5 years. Before I left, my host dad felt the need to remind me “It’s snowing.” Yes, I was aware. But this is normal, I didn’t think the snow could get in the way of me and my run, because it never really has before. The one thing I didn’t think about was that maybe even if I was ready for the streets, they weren’t exactly ready for me. It had been snowing all night, but nothing serious. That is, if snow-plows or salters worked at night or on Sundays. I found myself traipsing through the snow that buried my shoes, walking up hills because there was no salt to get a grip with, and watching far too many cars spin-off the sides of roads, or get stuck in the middle of a steep incline, their tires fruitlessly spinning whilst spewing brown slush all over my legs. At the same time, I had other drivers and pedestrians congratulating me for running in the snow. At the beginning I thought this was ridiculous, but after two hours running on untouched sidewalks, I decided it was well-deserved.

So maybe I’m used to this kind of snow, but no one else here is. Most people have been walking around with umbrellas and in rain boots while beautiful thick flakes of snow float down around them. The buses have not been running. My host mom seems to think that neither me nor E will be going to class tomorrow (keep in mind it stopped snowing early this afternoon). I have not seen a single salting truck or snow plow, and have seen only one person shovelling in front of their house. I got redirected on the France weather site because “due to weather problems” it wasn’t working. I saw grown men building a snowman all by themselves. I didn’t risk going into Paris today because the internet claimed there were traffic disruptions on every train line.

balcony’s looking a little different than back in September

I mean I’m not complaining; it’s kind of pretty. But let’s clean up the roads so I can get back to my runs.