Meteorology questions!

[vindemiatrix]

I remember NONE of my high-school Geography. So if anyone can answer me the following questions...

1. I have a temperate country on about the same latitude as mid-France is on our world. It's surrounded by mountains on two and a half sides (the mountains border the sea in the northwest and other countries in the southwest to east) and on the other sides it borders another, higher country -- it's sort of a basin. What would the weather be like there? Just a rough estimate would be good.

2. I have a valley in that same country that runs vaguely north-north-east to south-east-east with a river running through it. Weather, again?

3. Would the weather in the higher country north of this one be noticeably different?

If anyone has ANY IDEA it would be helpful!

[snooze]

1) My guess is slightly dry, but...foggy at times. Smog might be a problem.
2) Valley would be about the same as the basin, but possibly with more moisture due to the river. Not as arid as the basin sounds. If there's mountains on all sides, there'd be no rainshadow that I can see.
3) In the higher country, I'm guessing there'd be more wind and rain as there'd be no mountains as a breaker.

I'm trying to think what kind of pressure patterns might appear here. More changeable pressure in the higher altitudes, I think--thus more wind and weather more prone to extremes of rain and sun, depending on the season. Anything right next to the sea would have a lot more rainfall as well as strong windstorms. Thunderstorms in the dryer areas, perhaps (basin would be my guess for thunderstorms, if the clouds were able to get over the mountains after coming off the sea or higher lands, or formed in the basin.)