While Belgium, Holland, the UK and Northern France are slowly submerging under buckets of rain and there’s talk of building a second Ark, us lot down here are sweltering under a torrid heatwave. Temperatures just keep on soaring and it’s forecast to get even hotter. 

South-Eastern Europe seems the worst hit, though there are also forest fires in Greece and Italy. Mind you, one French meteorologist, who didn’t give his name, stated that this type of phenomenon only occurred every 20 years. We should be so lucky.

However, there’s a phenomenon that occurs here every summer: the stars come out and play. Jack Nicholson and his daughter Lorraine were seen down in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, David Beckham cycling around the Var, Rod Stewart and his wife Penny were spotted in various towns along the coast while Naomi Campbell and Karl Lagerfeld were seen looking cool in St Tropez.

July is also the favoured month when Jazz and world musicians descend upon the Côte d’Azur: Lionel Richie, Peter Gabriel, Diana Ross, Cesaria Evora, Marcus Miller, Jeff Beck, John Mayall, Keith Jarrett, and many, many more talented people come to enchant and enrich our souls.

While Northern Europe is inundated with water and Southern Europe glutted by torrid heat, we are awash to the sound of music.