Not only are the natives suffering but we have been reading that the nuclear power plants around the country are under stress, too. 
Again, an early morning walk, breakfast, some house work and shopping, we set off northwards for the town of Massiac.
France, like many countries, pinned their power policy to nuclear power back in the 70s and are currently running 58 nuclear power plants. Because of the need for an abundance of water to cool the reactors down, the very dry summer has caused the rivers to start running well below what is considered normal, thus causing a shortage for the cooling system of the nuclear plants.
The French government has placed a number of these on a reduced capacity as a safety requirement - just when the need for power for cooling is at its peak.
We finally moved on today from our very pleasant aire at St Flour - under the trees on top of the hill where the old town was built.
Again, an early morning walk, breakfast, some house work and shopping, we set off northwards for the town of Massiac.
We arrived here just at lunch time, parked up in the aire - by the river Alagnon, and, in more shade!
From St Flour we had an eleven kilometre decent on a gradient of 7% - we hadn’t realised just how high up we had climbed over the past week or so.
The heatwave had struck again across Europe and we had not escaped it - just trying to minimise its effect on us. The co-driver even went for a “dip” in the river for part of the afternoon.
Thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow so we may stay put here for another day. A very pleasant spot.
Just catching up with your travels guys, just awesome, and how about the viaduct. Thats a fete of engineering and a credit to the French. The cathedral light show and fireworks must have been an interesting night, your pics are fabulous. xx
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