Just got back after 10 days in the Correze area of France. The night of
4th/5th July provided the most spectacular electrical storms I've ever
witnessed. It started innocuously enough at about 19:30 on the 4th, then
continued until at least 6 am the following day.
Cell after cell passed south to north all night, the lightning being
continuous - I don't know how many strokes per second, but it must have been
phenonemal.

When we arrived at about 17:00 on the 30th June, we found that the main fuse
box and meter on the outside of the house had obviously suffered a lightning
surge from a previous storm, as it had been blown to bits. We contacted
EDF, who sent an engineer the same evening - he replaced the shattered,
blackened remains and power was restored within a couple of hours. I wonder
if I would have got the same service in the UK...


CK