« By midnight, the wind was straight out of the west, and he heard the moan leap to bellowing, a terrible wind out of the catalog of winds. A wind related to the Blue Northern, the frigid Blaast and the Landlash. A cousin to the Bull’s-eye squall that started in a small cloud with a ruddy center, mother-in-law to the Vinds-gnyr of the Norse Sagas, the three day Nor’easters of maritime New England. And uncle wind to the Alaskan Williwaw and Ireland’s wild Doinionn. Stepsister to the Koshava that assaults the Yugoslavian plains with Russian snow, the Steppenwind, and the violent Buran from the great open steps of central Asia, the Crivetz, the frigid Viugas and Purgas of Siberia, and from the north of Russia, the ferocious Myatel. A blood brother of the prairie Blizzard, the Canadian Arctic screamer known simply as Northwind, and the Pittarak smoking down off Greenland‘s ice fields. This nameless wind scraped the Rock [New Foundland] with an edge like steel. » From The Shipping News by Annie Proulx – which we highly recommend.
The Mistral, A Windswept History of Modern France
For visitors and vacationers, the Mediterranean brings to mind warm sun, blue skies, beaches and palm trees. But for those who live there, these idyllic features are surpassed by the winds. The Mistral, Libeccio, Sirocco, Khamsin, Levante, Tramontane and the Etesian all blow across or around the region. The cold northerly corridor wind namedThe Mistral is perhaps the best known. Its name comes from the Provençal words for wind which in turn is derived from the Latin magistralis or « the master ». Catherine Tatiana Dunlap, a professor of modern European history at Montana State University in Bozeman has recently published The Mistral, A Windswept History of Modern France (University of Chicago Press). Professor Dunlop’s style is, well, professorial, but the compact book with a beautiful lavender cover and Monet painting of the Mediterranean is quite interesting. It is organized around five chapters. The first two deal with the Mistral as the force that has fashioned the physical and human landscapes of Provence. Professor Dunlop’s points out the bories – shepherd huts – and stout stone homes with no windows on the windy northwest side as well as cypress windbreaks. The later chapters explore the attempts of the 19th century nation-builders attempts to understand, manage and control the Mistral. The political and economic objective was homogenizing France and bettering the economy by « subduing unruly regional environments and making the population less vulnerable to nature’s whims ».
“The icy breath of the mistral has a sharp chilliness that is unknown to the inhabitants of the north of France. Instead of penetrating you through the skin, it seizes on the marrow of the bones and paralyzes you.“ — Alexander Dumas
Despite its being called a “land Tempest “ by Alexandre Dumas, the Mistral was and is a beloved part of local culture and part of the identity of the inhabitants of Provence. They respect the wind and adapt themselves to it rather than trying to change it. The Mistral is a symbol of those who want to keep their local traditions, language and identity. The final chapter talks about the influence of the Mistral in European art. Provençal painters battled to keep their easels upright and all kinds of grit was glued into the canvas by the ferocious wind. The wind shows in their subject matter as well. Emile Loubon’s washerwomen hang sheets on the line with difficulty or Antoine Roux’s ships with full sails lean into the waves close to capsizing. Consider van Gogh’s “Olive Trees”. There is a grasshopper embedded in the paint and the wind force is made visible in the trunks by wavy tormented lines. In a letter to brother Theo van Gogh wrote “I always have to struggle against the mistral, which absolutely prevents one of being in control of one’s brushstroke… Hence the wild look of the studies.” Dunlop demonstrates how the windscape has “become part of France’s physical make up, concretized, over the centuries, in the biogeography of southern France”.
[The mistral is] a cold and unbearable wind that penetrates the most firmly closed departments, and irritates the nerves in a manner that give mood swings to even the most intrepid. — “Memoirs of a tourist” by Stendhal
The Mistral in popular culture
The Mistral is ever present in popular culture. Le Mistral in films starts with a 1943 French drama directed by Jacques Houssin, starring Roger Duchesne and Ginette Leclerc. The film focuses on life in a small Mediterranean port where a young girl attempts to distract a fisherman from his monotonous life and chaste romances of the Provençal village. Another Dutchman (there’s a culture that knows about wind), Joris Ivens, created the documentary Pour Le Mistral in 1966. Ivens explores the impact of the Rhône valley wind on life. In Paris you can visit the Parc de Saint Cloud where there is Paris there is a sculpture honoring Ivens. Le Mistral -The Man Who Disappeared in the Mirror was made by the Japanese film director Masasumi Tani in 1994. And most recently Ici le mistral souffle fort. A short film by Sabine Jean who takes us on a road movie from the North Sea in Belgium to Mediterranean in search of the dazzling experience that has crossed her body, her mind and above all her soul.
Interestingly George Whitman’s original bookshop was named Le Mistral before becoming Shakespeare & Co.
There’s a cologne and eau de parfum called The Mistral, as well as countless cinemas, wines and restaurants. Writer Frédéric Mistral’s work describes Provence and the Mistral in the 19th century.
More…
In addition to the Mistral Wikipedia offers a list of the multitude of local winds in France. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_vents_de_France
With the name Beaufort I always imagined the Beaufort scale was invented by a Frenchman. But this early scale to estimate wind speeds and the effects was created by Britain’s Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857). He developed the scale in 1805 to help sailors estimate the winds via visual phenomena. It was used by everyone until about 50 years ago.
