Here at last in the Vallee du Mars, a beautiful, peaceful place where the background noise is the sound of cowbells, not the constant but subdued roar of traffic as at home, we have experienced in only a few days almost all varieties of weather - sunshine, howling gales, rain and up on the mountains we can see from our house, the first snow of winter; only a dusting which will probably disappear in a day or so, but still a hint of things to come.