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Pyrenees mountains can't be seen from Bordeaux nor anywhere close at all. I was there last summer, and when driving back home via A-63/E70 looking for the south, I didn't see a panoramic view from westernmost Pyrenees mountains until I reached Hossegor and Biarritz area.
A bit further inland through Dax the panoramic views are better.
Have you ever been there? If not, as you are a botanical enthusiast, I reccomend you to do so.
If you began in Nantes you will see how trees are typical decidious ones, same as the the rest of NW Europe.
Then, from La Rochelle to Bordeaux you will see mainly decidious ones, but also some other that are typical of the Iberian peninsula, especially for some kind of trees that appears in climates that are bordeline mediterranean/oceanic ones with some oceanic influences, like, say, southern Galicia and most of Portugal and even western Andalusia. I mean cork oak (Quercus Suber) and evergreen oak (Quercus Ilex) and some others as well.
Then, when you move south of Bordeaux you will enter the huge pine forest of Landes. Still the northernmost parts to the forest has some evergreen oaks and cork oaks, but as the farther south you move, more gloomy rainy is the climate even in summer, so the southernmost part of the Landes forest near Hossegor has not cork oaks.
Once you entered the French Basque country, you will see how decidious forest are everywhere, so you would think you are travelling the wrong way toward north, lol.
This kind of thick decidious forest forest can be found all the way from Biarritz to La Coruña, although human activities plus some high populated areas along the coast destroyed some forests in the past.
Unfortunately, some eucalyptus forest can be found along the northern Spanish coast because a wrong environement rule by replacing native decidious forests.
Then, once you move south of La Coruña looking for Porto you will see some mediterranean trees here and there, but still not much, same as La Rochelle/Bordeaux area.
Then, south of Porto you will see true Mediterranean forest but also some decidious ones.
By watching this video you can see how the nature scenery changes from Bordeaux to San Sebastian:
Thanks, very interesting. I haven't been to Europe, but would love to see the area you described, particularly Spain's Atlantic coast.
I will have to watch the video when I get some more data.
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Not to mention the vineyards located north of Bordeaux.
All these things plus the nice summers give the whole area a beautiful mediterranean vibe.
That's often what people say when they come to this area in summer ..... until it rains, then it becomes "how do you produce good wine in such wet stormy weather?"
The summers are nice in all the climates you listed, but it's difficult for me to consider summer in isolation from the other seasons. Given that all these places have ridiculously mild winters (that barely count as "winter"), I would not want to live in any of them. Not enough seasonal contrast for me. It's like there are only two seasons: cool-ish and wet, and warm-ish and dry.
Summers are still too warm for me to visit, unless I stay in a place with air conditioning. How do Europeans manage without A/C? Unlike people in true tropical climates, they aren't adapted to heat, and the winter season removes any adaptation anyway. Seriously, how do you manage? Can any European answer this for me? Also, the average Filipino or Indian typically walks around the home with flip flops and shorts and not much else on, but Europeans tend to wear a lot more clothing. Must be nasty in that heat.
Edit: I may be able to answer my own question. I've noticed that Europeans tend to dress very warmly at mild temperatures (0 to +10 C), sometimes even with fur coats, whereas here in Canada we would wear light clothing. Perhaps you guys are permanently adapted to warm temperatures, which sounds a little paradoxical for a temperate continent like Europe but it is what it is.
I live in a place where summers are substantially warmer than in these areas, and I don't have any A/C. Sure, it gets a bit annoying in mid summer and sometimes I wish I had it for the warmest days of the year (typically when the lows are around 23c and highs in the 37-38c area), but otherwise it is kinda useless at home.
I would say people adapt progressively to the changing of season. A 25c day might feel very warm in April, but when July comes these are the normal conditions and people are usually fine with it. I mean the normal summer conditions in these climates are hardly extreme, or usually not for a long time. It is normal in places like this to have a heatwave (highs in the mid-30s) followed by several days in low 20s in the summer.
Winters are mild but then people who live there are not accustomed to subfreezing temps, so I would say that they are less accustomed to cold conditions than to warm ones. These climates are very pleasant for most people. I would add that winters can be pretty rainy and windy in some areas, with also high relative humidity (I suppose, never lived there), so it's not like you would manage most january days in shorts and a tshirt like someone who lives in a place where snow is on the ground for 4 or 5 months. I think a normal coat would suffice. Maybe a hat and a scarf for the windiest and coldest days. I don't think they have any ice days.
How do you sleep at night when the overnight low is 18-20 C? I imagine that inside the house, it probably won't cool down to below 21 or 22 C in the best case. Apartments are probably even worse, never cooling below 25 C. How can you sleep under such hot conditions?
I'm at home at my parents place in Lyon and it's about 27 or 28c in my room. All windows open. I believe I'll manage to sleep anyway, you get used to it
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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Originally Posted by arctic_gardener
How do you sleep at night when the overnight low is 18-20 C? I imagine that inside the house, it probably won't cool down to below 21 or 22 C in the best case. Apartments are probably even worse, never cooling below 25 C. How can you sleep under such hot conditions?
I fall asleep pretty well every night all year round, even during summer as well when my room is 24ºC or 25º C on average, and outside lows usually range from 12º C to 17º C more than 60% of summer nights.
Keeping all the windows open from late May to late September is enough for me.
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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Originally Posted by Steelernation71
Bordeaux, Nantes, and La Rochelle are the only acceptable climates. The others are way too mild, rainy, and gloomy. I'll go with Bordeaux for having the warmest summers and the lowest record lows. It also doesn't seem overly rainy or gloomy.
Bordeaux and surroundings areas are not gloomy during summer season because there are not mountains keeping stratocumulus stuck, which is the case for Biarritz area (French Basque Country) and northern Spanish coast by both Pyrenees mountains and Cantabrian mountains.
Azores high's usual location during summer (just not so far away from nothwesternmost Spanish coast) bring northerlies to the whole area, which often make Spanish coast gloomier than French coast from Biarritz to Nantes.
This screenshot of Sat24.com from 25th June 2016 at 19:00, which I edited myself, explain it very well. However, they are not coastal fogs like they have in California by cold SST, but stratocumuls over a warm sea being stuck by those mountains and often have their cloud base at 500 metres asl or so:
I'm at home at my parents place in Lyon and it's about 27 or 28c in my room. All windows open. I believe I'll manage to sleep anyway, you get used to it
Edit: I may be able to answer my own question. I've noticed that Europeans tend to dress very warmly at mild temperatures (0 to +10 C), sometimes even with fur coats, whereas here in Canada we would wear light clothing. Perhaps you guys are permanently adapted to warm temperatures, which sounds a little paradoxical for a temperate continent like Europe but it is what it is.
Might be a cultural thing. My winter has warmer maximums, and colder minimums than the climates listed, but plenty of people in shorts, short sleeved shirts and even bare feet during winter. I think it's because many people view it as a mild climate year round, and dress accordingly.
Last summer I woke up at 11am and realised it was ~36˚C, that I was sleeping normally in (yes I had a fan and no blankets). Most of the night ranged from 20-30˚C. Usually it's around 20-25˚C.
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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Originally Posted by Joe90
That's often what people say when they come to this area in summer ..... until it rains, then it becomes "how do you produce good wine in such wet stormy weather?"
Well, Bordeaux and northern Landes area still experience a great number of thunderstorms, although most of norhteastern Spain is more thundery.
On the other hand, la Rochelle and Nantes area experience few thunderstorms, same than those Cfb climates from Galicia and northern Portugal coast.
This map means average yearly number of days with thunderstorm:
This is how thundertorms usually move since they born and raised over central or northern Spain until they hit southwest France, but usually they move furhter inland rather than over the southwestern French coast itself:
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