Weather/climate

Anyone who knows me knows that I dream of living in Florida one day. With sunny skies almost all year long, the ocean close by, and NO SNOW, Florida is definitely on the top of my "to live" list. I say this because it has been cold and windy here for the past couple of days. This weekend in Lyon, it never reached 70°F, while today I'm not sure that it even reached 60. It has also been extremely windy. This morning, on my way to class, the wind was so strong that it actually stopped me on my bike. I'm sure if I hadn't tried to move forward, I would have been pushed backwards.

With the exception of the last few days, France has a fairly moderate climate. For being on roughly the same latitude as Michigan (the 45th), France has it much better than we do. Just because I was curious, I asked my host family what kind of weather they normally experience throughout the year. For the most part, it is very similar to Michigan minus one minor detail: snow. My host family indicated that Annecy receives very little snow in the lowland areas. The mountains, however, receive plenty of snow as I realized by the 20-some ski resort towns I've seen so far.

Aside from the last couple of days, the weather has been decent here. There have been several days that have been well into the 80 degree range. Other days, it has rained harder than any rain I've ever seen in Michigan. The nights are fairly cool, as they are in Michigan too.

I could definitely have a summer house in Annecy and a winter house in Florida. The way housing prices look in the Haute-Savoie region of France, however, I don't think that will happen anytime soon. That will have to be another blog post for another time.