The city had been smoldering for days. All that concrete, all that asphalt, all those stones - absorbing and compounding the heat. All those damned cars adding hot fumes to the hot air.
Those city dwellers who hadn't escaped to the seaside, stayed inside, motionless behind drawn curtains. Only a few masked people dared to venture outside. One felt infinite gratefulness for any tree offering some shade, for any bush of roses, however lonely, able to conjure up visions of the Provence in an overheated brain.
But then, at last, the wind picked up and rain started pouring down. One could almost hear a city wide sigh of relief, everybody throwing wide open their windows - in all streets and neighborhoods, from cramped basement flats to lavish lofts.
