Sun on the way for Toussaint

THREE sunny days are on the way across most of France for this Toussaint (November 1) weekend, with temperatures predicted to hit up to 23C in some areas.

Starting today, most of France is expected to enjoy a sunny day; although with some cloud along the Atlantic coast and with scattered showers in Brittany and Basse-Normandie possible until lunchtime and weather continuing very cloudy in Brittany this afternoon.

However tomorrow morning should see everyone wake up to a sunny day apart from some mist in the Rhône-Alpes, Burgundy and Franche-Comté and fog on the German border in Alsace and Lorraine. Alsace is the exception tomorrow, remaining very cloudy, while in Lorraine the weather is predicted to brighten up.

Temperatures tomorrow will be in the high teens or the 20s in much of France, with the south-west predicted to have temperatures from 21-23C.

Sunday - Toussaint - will be sunny again across most of France, this time with the exceptions being Burgundy (starting foggy and becoming cloudy later on) and Languedoc-Roussillon, where there will be scattered showers in the morning and clouds in the afternoon.

Toussaint (All Saints Day) is, as it sounds, the Catholic Festival honouring all of the saints. It is often associated with Le Jour des Morts (All Souls Day), which is actually the following day (November 2) and commemorates the dead.

It is traditional at this time of year to visit family graves and put flowers on them, especially chrysanthemums – often on November 1, which is a bank holiday, rather than the actual Jour des Morts the following day. With Toussaint falling on a Sunday this year there is no actual ‘bank holiday’ as such.

Saturday is also Halloween, from All Hallows Eve (ie. the day before All Saints Day) – a festival which is seen in France as an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ import but which has been gaining in popularity. It is often said to have been grafted onto a Celtic autumn festival called Samhain.

Photo: screen shot from Météo France