A retro approach to air-conditioning

    Have I told you how swelteringly hot it's been here recently? How we cope with it is by closing all the shutters during the day time to keep the house cool and opening them at night to let the colder night air pour in.
    Also, I've started carrying a fan around in my handbag and, the more I use it, the more it makes sense. Think about it for a moment. Here's a device that folds up to nothing, is as "green" as it's possible to be (the only energy you're using is your own) and really, really works. And then there's the whole language of the fan.
    Here are the three fans I currently own.  Two I use, the first one's simply to look at.

My absolute favourite--and one of my best vide-grenier finds ever. I spied this lovely little fan a year or so ago on an insanely hot day and it cost me all of one euro. It's made of paper, a bit tattered as you can see, and was originally a promotional item for a champagne company. Strapless black cocktail dress, scarlet lips...isn't she gorgeous?

 My latest purchase happened at last Sunday's vide-grenier in La Bastide-de-Boussignac, a village not far from ours. This fan is creamy-white and--I don't know if you can make the name out--looks as though it was a souvenir from Bali. I paid 50 centimes for it.

  This is the first fan I owned. It was given to me by the lady who ran the hotel in Béziers where I stayed in, I think it was, 2001. It's basic black so it goes with everything.