The clocks may have already gone forward but winter weather returned to parts of Normandy overnight forcing the country’s weather service to put the departments of Calvados, l'Orne and l'Eure on “orange” alert – the second highest level of warning.

The winter of 2012/13 has gone down as one of the harshest to hit France in recent memory after breaking several records.

Meteo France revealed earlier this month that several towns in northern and western France recorded their coldest start to spring since records began. Throughout March the average temperature across the north of France was 1.5 degrees colder than normal.

Residents of Normandy will be relieved to hear however that the snow falls forecast will be “nothing compared to” the winter storm that brought the region to a standstill in the middle of March.

Around 15 cm of snow is expected this time around far less than the metre high drifts that resulted in hundreds of motorists getting stranded in their cars and power cuts to thousands of homes.