Season and weather

Last time I left Hendaye on the 10th August and this time it was the 15th. As I read the type of weather that all the summer walkers have endured, I really wonder why they do it. I had weeks of fine, stable, not-too-hot but sunny weather. I also had one good storm, some nights of cloud and maybe four days when actual rain fell. But in the overall scheme of things that's not much.

For what it is worth my rationale is simple:
- Winter - too much snow.
- Spring - too wet and cold.
- Summer - too hot and crowded.
- Autumn - just right and largely uncrowded!

I had better admit here that I am not constrained by when I can take holiday. And there can still be groups out on weekends.

In practice I can only speak based on two autumn seasons - one pretty marvellous and the other totally brilliant. Whether the extra awful spring in Europe this year (2013) contributed to an extra lovely autumn I can't say. I am told that it did lead to a mass of flowers all coming out at once in summer.

However apart from the first few hot days, when it made perfect sense to sit in the shade in the middle of the day, there was no time when I felt cooked. In the comments that I have read much of the discomfort people seem to suffer comes from heat more than cold. So later in the year seems to make sense to me. I also have a feeling that there are more, and more violent storms in summer than later in the year, but this is purely a supposition.

As I complete these notes in early November we have anjolyed more than a month of fine dry weather in the Eastern Pyrenees, so in a good year arriving in mid-late Oct should not be ruled out as an option. I saw people starting from Banyuls on the 24th September this year, who would probably be finishing about now.