The dreaded November is over. My memory may fail me but I think that it wasn’t as bad as it has been in previous years we’ve lived here. Of course we had a considerable number of days with low hanging clouds but also fair amount of sunshine, and many beautiful, warm days. My Facebook memories keep telling me that in previous years we’ve already gotten snow here at the bottom of the valley at least once in November, not this year. There has also been only a couple of days — or rather mornings — with below or about zero temperatures, and this past Sunday was one of them.

It was our long run day. Even on these colder months we like to plan our long runs so that there is at least one water point on the route; a standpipe, tap, or supermarket. Especially for the first one it is not always certain if  they stay open throughout the winter, and that’s the case this year. Standpipes that have previously been open all year around have now been closed. Last weekend we found one of the most reliable standpipes closed in Lumbin, where the paragliders land. This weekend another relatively reliable one in Bois Français had been closed; it was still open two weeks ago. But we were smarter this time and carried some money with us to buy water, and planned our return route via a small supermarket. Which we found exceptionally closed because of the year-end inventory. Bummer! However, it was not a complete disaster since there was one more water point by the tennis courts in the neighboring village, with just two more kilometers to finish our run.

The neighboring village had these cute wooden winter/Christmas displays at the front of the town hall.