Summer storms !

Ok, ok, Versailles is the city of Louis XIV, aka Roi Soleil. Doesn't mean it's always sunshine !

I think that we're waiting for rain/storm since... a month... something like that. It's so hot this days that they are talking about drought all around the country. It was forbidden to waste water by watering grass or washing cars...

We finally got this beloved storm. 

I love summer storms ! It's so beautiful !! Love the flashes of lightning, the sound of thunder. Love love love !

Of course, my Parents don't. Well no, just my Mum.

Dad grew up in Africa and keep very good memories of that kind of storms. 

Mum grew up in lost country side, and kept very bad memories of that kind of storms, when there were no more electricity, when the lightening was falling near her house. She hates storms.

I love storms !! Well... when I'm inside, cuz I remember some storms during summer camps, when we were sleeping under canvas. Damn, it was so scary !!!!

And I also remember a storm few years ago... Well, it was 6 years ago. I was an intern in second year of my grad school.

June. Very very hot and loud. BIG storm. In a minute, the sky was sooo dark, we needed to turn on the lights, and it was just 17h00. 

I was with my Mum and Sister, drinking some tea. And dark. No more light, no more electricity. We found an electronic lamp, and I went down to find the circuit breaker.

I called

"Mummmmmmm.... You gotta see this !!! I know why there is no more electricity !!!"

Few months before, there were works in a lot of our streets, and the men made some mistakes, some sewers were closed. In our basement, we have a peep-hole. Because of the closed sewers and the strength of the storm, the peep-hole broke, and our basement (like almost all the basements of the city plus parking lots and and and) was flood. Nice.

FYI, there are four rooms in my basement : the one with the peephole is our laundry with one washing machine, one tumble-dryer, one refrigerator, and at this moment and old oven. So... imagine all the plugs (ok, for this room, there are all protected because there are high on the walls !), the second one is the one with our boiler, and all the tools. Third one is the one with wine and food, the only one with a door. And the last one, the one with : tv, computer, telephone... All the plugs, on the floor. Of course. 

So, we went down with my Mum and Sister and began to bail out ! We began around 18h00 (because before, we tried to call firemen etc... But... everybody was really busy... - that day, around 5 or 6 people died, drown in the underground parking lot... The one that was open few weeks before...) and my big brother came back home after a day of work. He saw what happened and helped us. 

Two or three hours later, the four of us looked at the door of the wine/food room... We were pretty happy cuz we bailed out a lot of water from the others room. We opened the door and realized that there was a lot of water there, maybe 40 cm ! Bottles were swimming with the wood... Very nice !

We spent the night bailing out the water. The next day, we took pictures for the insurance. We waited for their answers and emptied the rooms.

We didn't lose a lot, just the moquette and sofa from the TV room and some old books. All the electronic stuffs survived ! 

The next day (the one after bailing out the water), I was sick. A cold because of the water. I was supposed to work from home for my internship. I didn't. At this moment we had only one computer, the one that just survived to an improvised bath !

Tonight, we looked at this storm and thought about that old storm... Crossing the fingers to be sure that it won't happen again...

Now, time for me to watch a little movie, and go to sleep !

xoxo

 

PS : time to write the post and upload the video, the storm is over, and streets are almost dry ! But the lovely smell of after-rain/after-storm is still here, love it !!