Not some philosophical musing about a local hero on their deathbed, but actual power cuts. This may come as a bit of a surprise to the many Daily Mail reading expats who live here – but there are some things that work better in the UK. One of these is the national grid. The Brittany region only produces 8% of the electricity it consumes, therefore it has to ’import’ electricity from the rest of France. Quite simply the electricity distribution network is not up to carrying the amount of required electricity into Brittany.
To avoid the network overloading everybody is being asked to moderate their consumption during peak hours of 5 and 8pm. If these warnings are not heeded then preventative power cuts will be imposed to protect the network. Most at risk is Finistère being at the edge of the network. Yesterday morning every Mairie in Finistère was contacted by phone to warn of outages.
This dampening the Christmas spirit somewhat. Towns and villages that were only last week boasting about their Christmas lights are now switching them off. In St Brieuc their 11km of garlands and 27000 bulbs are staying off, in Paimpol tonight and tomorrow there be no Christmas and town centre street lights. Vannes like other towns are switching off the illumination of public building and monuments.
However, Christmas lights fans visiting Pontrieux need not fear – as I look out of the window our Christmas lights are glowing with gay abandon. I reckon there will be words….
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