France’s world-famous winds have shaped the country’s landscape, architecture, culture, lifestyle – and even fashion, says Daniela Harris
Bordered by four seas (North Sea, Channel, Atlantic and Mediterranean) and by three mountain ranges (Alps, Jura and Pyrénées), France is quite literally the perfect storm for a changeable climate, driven by its variable winds. Its reputation for being a windy country is well known and while its breezes can be formidable forces in winter, they provide welcome relief at the height of summer. The country’s landscape has been shaped by its winds, as has the architecture, leisure, the arts and even fashion. These winds have their own unique personalities and histories. Here is our gust-by-gust guide.
WHERE THE WIND BLOWS
• La Bise (the kiss) is an intense but dry affair that blows both very hot and cold. La Bise hails from the landmass of central Europe, blowing across eastern France from the Alps. The only thing that stops the kiss’s path is the Atlantic weather system and the mountainous Massif
Central. During summer, this wind is perfect for drying your laundry, prompting the local saying avec la bise, lave ta chemise (with the bise, wash your shirt).
• Le Mistral. By far the most famous of France’s winds is Le Mistral, an extension of La Bise that runs south down the Rhone valley to central Provence, and can last for weeks. With speeds recorded of up to 90 miles an hour, Le Mistral, meaning ‘masterly’, certainly lives up to its powerful reputation. However, it is this very wind that blows across Provence, the Côte d’Azur and the easterly parts of Languedoc-Roussillon to create the region’s extraordinary light, the freshest of air and uncommonly bright days that attract so many visitors.
• Le Tramontane means ‘beyond the mountains’ and is referenced as early as the 13th century by Marco Polo. More recently, the band Foreigner wrote a track Tramontane, referring to the wind’s foreign credentials. This mischievous wind manifests as very powerful, sudden gusts of wind that seemingly appear out of nowhere across the southwest of France. It is a northerly wind created by the bottleneck between the Alps and Mediterranean. Across Occitanie, many a street and square are named after this mischief-making wind.
• Le Marin. Not as powerful as its brother the Mistral, as the name suggests, the Marin also derives from the sea (the Gulf of Lion), and is a warm, wet wind that creates rain in central
France. It also helps to push back the Tramontane wind, which blows over the Pyrénées and together they create a cloudless airspace above the Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales.
