I haven’t done a sayings (dictons) blog for a week or so – definitely time for one. You could blog full time just about French sayings, there are so many of them!

Here’s my pick of October related ones. I’m afraid they’re only a tad less doom-laden than the autumn ones I listed here.

  1. Gelée d’octobre Rend le paysan sabre. Frost in October makes the countryperson sad.

Too true! No imminent freezing likely at present though. We were up in the high 20s yesterday morning. Today is misty but the temperatures are creeping up. It’s been a fabulously warm start to the month this year. And that’s not a good thing since …

 

  1. Si octobre est trop chaud, en février la glace est au carreau. If October is too warm, the ice will be thick in February.

So take your pick, happy now and sad later__ – or vice versa!

 

Mario the guinea pig has moved into the pond now!

  1. Octobre en bruine Hiver en ruine. A drizzly October means a dreadful winter.

No drizzle yet, but we really do need some. One of our little streams has run dry and our duck pond is still a duck hole.

 

  1. S’il pleut à la St Denis – tout l’hiver a de la pluie. If it rains on St Denis’s day,  9 October, then it will be a wet winter.

We’ll find out in a few days’ time …

 

  1. Temps pluvieux à la Sainte-Ghislaine, la fin du mois s’annonce vilaine. Temps sec à la Saint-Ghislain, annonce un hiver d’eau plein. Wet weather on St Ghislaine’s day (10 October) means that the rest of October will be rotten. Dry weather on that day, though, and it will be a very wet winter.

Again, we’ll have to wait and see. It won’t be nice, but I’m voting for the wet winter option since our lakes need the water.

 

  1. Beaucoup de pluie en octobre, beaucoup de vent en décembre. Lots of rain in October means lots of wind in December.

We could do with an official tempete to finish off our barn roof so we can get it retiled off our insurance! Not looking hopeful with this dry October so far.

 

  1. Octobre glacé, fait vermine trépasser. An icy October makes the vermin start trespassing.

We’ve already had some trespassing – our uninvited visitor last week. OK, it was still September and it wasn’t vermin that did it, but I’m still narked about it! Back to subject, yes, the little critters will be moving in once it gets colder. We’ll have to keep the cats in more. Gigi, Wendy and Voltaire are still a bit sad after yesterday. Our three little kittens didn’t lose their mittens, but their gonads!

 

8. À la Saint-Quentin, la chaleur a sa fin. At St Quentin’s, 31st October, warmth comes to an end.

This one is completely and utterly true. Winter begins without fail on 1st November here in Creuse. Only four weeks away now … brr.__

 

  1. Finally one I’ve made up.

October bookings for the gite Mean all through winter we can eat!

We’ve had a very good and long season this year, running through from March to October. We have one more week of guests in the gite after the current visitors leave on Saturday, and three more weeks booked on Alder Lake. We definitely have our Heads Above Water. Now, that would make a good title for a book … and it’s coming soon, so watch this space!