Actually, we might have titled this the problem in Languedoc.

Le Vent.

The wind.

This is one of those places in the world where you should never make a decision about buying (or even renting) a home until you go through a day or three of wind howling from (mostly) the west.

I am reminded of the Cajon Pass, in Southern California.

The Cajon Pass is the primary route between California’s high desert and greater Los Angeles.

If you were to look at property just south of Cajon Pass, you might find unexpected bargains on new homes near new schools. With easy access from Interstate 15 to major SoCal freeways.

But if you bought that place, in the Cajon Pass, on a day when the air was not moving, and did not do your due diligence, you soon will find that you live in a wind tunnel, with air being channeled through the break in the mountains and spilling with some violence into the uplands and plains directly below.

That is how it works here in the Languedoc.

If you followed the link (above), you may have seen that winds can assault this region from several directions. The key is that the winds are powerful. Destructive, even.

Today, we visited Narbonne, about an hour south of where we are staying. I’d never been in the city, just passed it a time or 12. Interesting place, part of the first Roman province outside of Italy.

However, le vent intervened. It moved the rented car around on the freeway, and this was with four people inside. It picked up dirt and carried it, and hurled motes into eyes.

Wind is an issue throughout the region, but particularly in the southern reaches of Languedoc, from Narbonne down to the border with Spain. It makes for great kite-sailing and wind-surfing out on the bays and on the Mediterranean. But it otherwise makes existence miserable.

You know you are in an area with wind issues when all the trees are bent in the same direction, from the steady flow of air channeled between the Pyrenees and the Massif Central.

The winds are neither cold nor hot. They generally reflect the prevailing temperature. It is the ferocity of them that grates.

We were busy looking around Narbonne, a city with lots of history and an interesting downtown and a really impressive old church, but the wind was so nasty we aborted the trip.

We returned north to Nizas, which is not exactly wind-free, but the currents are a bit muted here. Compared to the areas around Narbonne and Perpignan.

As we struggled back to the car, Leah encountered a local woman, and asked her about the winds. “Does it blow like this often?”

Yes, the woman said in French. Often. Especially in the afternoons. You never know when it is coming, but when it comes, it often rains the next day.

Well, that’s good to know. And likely explains why the homes in the Aude region of Languedoc tend to be less expensive than those 30-50 miles further north, in the Herault.

It’s like living in Devore instead of Redlands. The latter gets wind, as does the Herault, and more than a little.

But it doesn’t get it every day, and at 40 mph or higher. Big difference. Big factor in choosing a place to live.