Day 12 - SkyLines from the French Lock-down: Keeping Busy

No cinema or restaurants for distraction for the time being

Hey!  It's just after a rather late lunch and I have opened the laptop.  When France announced that quarantine would be extended until April 15th, the horrific statistics made staying home easy to accept.  At the time of the announcement, nearly 2,000 people had died from CV-19 in this country, with over 35,000  reported cases (& we all know there will be unreported ones), and only 5,700 recovered.  I'm not doing the math. It's too scary. If the scientists are correct, the peak is still some ways off.  So, for those of us confined, we need to find a way to pass the time and avoid over exposure to the news at all costs. That way layeth only stress and heartburn.  So, what's a girl to do when she can't go shopping.... (Actually, this applies just as much to my guy - he loves to shop!)  Well - it's time to play  "let's keep busy!"

Day 12  - Oh mon dieu - un autre quinze jours en avril... et il ya meme quatre jours qui rest du mars... (OMG - another 15 days in April... and there are still 4 left in March...)  While my French may not be very literary, I'm sure you can hear the angst.  I mean, we sorta knew it

would be longer but when I actually think of another 19 days of going no farther than the

Y had five left, I had six.
Drats! I lose again!

bakery, supermarket or pharmacy for a maximum of 1 hour and not getting to hold my boyfriend's hand as we stroll outdoors, it's a lot of days.  Well, we can keep on playing games but how many times can I stand for him to best me at a game of logic?  Grrr!

Then I think of those who are fighting this virus on the front lines like my partner's brother who is a doctor and I know we are the lucky ones to be quarantined and not exposed every working hour to the risk of infection. Silly writer woman, me.  The mere thought of the courage of the medical profession and the people stocking the shelves with food and supplies makes me feel like a real cop-out.  I know staying home is doing our part but it's demoralizing right? 

The lady at our bakery looks exhausted.  A baguette doesn't keep as it has no preservatives, so her team  has to keep making fresh loaves all day.  And we do freeze some to avoid going out for a few days but eventually, we run out again.  At least it's sunny today and it was nice to walk down the nearly empty street to get our "French stick" this morning.  Oh.   Hang on, just thinking about it, I suddenly need to wash my hands again.  Ridiculous, I know.  I scrubbed my hands the moment I got home.  I've been here on the terrace since then.  Don't budge, this will only take a minute... or twenty seconds to be more precise.

With hands that have grown chapped from being constantly washed I'm back.  Did we ever realize how long 20 seconds was??  The discomfort is small potatoes in a bigger picture of what we are trying to keep from becoming a still life.  Side note - when the French talk about

Checking in on the web with our
"pots" which is French for our buddies.

paintings that we call "still life"  they say, "nature morte" (nature dead)  Ugh!  Let's really try to avoid being in that painting!  Like the village, we are taking the quarantine seriously and with the sun shining today, it almost feels like a regular spring day.  We're having coffee on the terrace and we watch videos and laugh at things together on our phones.  I have a feeling lots of other people are doing much the same things as we are.

Finally, I turn on my laptop and think about the special connection we are all sharing right now.  I squint at the screen from beneath my sun hat and there is some muffled dance-house music pounding from a distant window down the street somewhere.  It's not unpleasant.  It's a sign of life and I appreciate it in a way I probably wouldn't have a month ago.

The sound of quiet voices of the couple next store  drifts down as they sit on their unseen terrace.  I hear ice clink in glasses.  They are a young couple with a small son.  They came to care for family and now must stay here until it's over.  Then a voice from that terrace calls down to us, "Profitez du soliel."  A man smiles down at us and I wave back. It is the son-in-law of our neighbor and he chats over the railing with Y, my partner.  I hear him say, "Si nous devons être coincés quelque part, au moins c'est au paradis,"  Yeah, you probably could tell that meant that if they had to get stuck someplace, it least it was in Paradise.  And I think again how lucky I am to be here, even if the virus is ravaging the country.  There is no where else I would rather live.

 Isolation with my romantic man is actually a special time for us.  We've only known each other

Coffee and Mind Games
on the Terrace

a year and our life here began in October.  We suddenly have a lot of time to talk about our childhoods, what we did before we met each other, and some of the books we love.  We share the memes that make us laugh and translate for each other what these say.  Sometimes the humor falls as flat as a souffle when you open the oven door too quickly.  But we'll get better at bridging this language gap, I am sure.  I try to explain the MU puzzle I'm working on but he decides it's just too much like something a math teacher might like and begins to read his magazine.

Everyone here is keeping very busy.  It's just confined to barracks, so to speak. I know people are cleaning, baking, and sewing like never before.  Knitting needles are clacking and those to-do lists are being whittled down.  The neighbor is renovating his adorable old 2CV van and as he works, I can hear him whistling.  The family beyond that is in their salon (living room)  watching a game show where you have to remember the lyrics to the songs to win.  A third neighbor is hanging her laundry out of the window and chatting to another lady who lives across the street from her.  (As I've mentioned, the street is about 3 meters, a little over 3 yards, wide.)  They are having a real gossip and I even hear one laugh.

The French have done this before, not for a long time, but they know how to take these things

Trying out the MU puzzle

seriously and how to keep up their spirits.  They have not forgotten the second World War.  For them, it is still recent in the memories of the grandparents, if not the parents.  And at school, they actually do study history.  Just three weeks ago, we watched a daily history series about President De Gaulle.  We saw the footage of the war, we saw the suffering of the people.  This palls a bit when you compare what we're doing. The enemy may be invisible but it isn't flying overhead to drop bombs on us or marching into town and banging on our doors with guns to round us up for execution.  I'm taking my cue from these brave people.

The "Bricolage" is going on in earnest! (That's DIY in our language.)  Adrian, three doors down, is finishing a long-term project by creating a living space in the upper floors of a previously decrepit building.  Last year he made a small studio apartment on the ground floor and then started a business renting it out to tourists.  This year, he hopes to move in upstairs so he can save the money he spends on rent and keep an eye on things.  It's a big job!  I can hear him sawing the boards that will become the supports for interior walls.  I can see the worry in his eyes as he thinks about how long this quarantine may go on.  You know the people who work in the tourist industry are going to really suffer this year.  But, he is carrying on, because, hey, not doing anything and worrying would be accomplish nothing.  

At the very end of the street, a family is working on a similar project of renovating a ruin into a home, but in their case it won't divided into a rental and an apartment.  They are a lovely couple and have a kid named Merlin.  I just love that!  We got to know them during the last six months as they tore out the old rotten floors, replaced the tile roof and created a terrace.  We can still hear them working on it as we pass by, but for now will have to wait to see what has changed.  This summer will be filled with a lot of "What did you do during the confinement?" discussions. 

Some neighbors have made made videos to pass around and cheer people up.  I've seen humorous ones, sweet ones, very artistic ones.  I laughed so loud at a one earlier that they probably heard me in the main street.  A young man is talking earnestly about how wonderful

ooohhh - lots of wires!

it is to be quarantined with his girlfriend.  Meanwhile, he's holding up cards that say things like

"can't talk, she's in the other room."  "I never knew she was like this!"  "I want to die...."   Then he smiled and said, "Take care everybody.  See you tomorrow."  

And we?  Well, reading and writing take up a lot of our day.  We love music and listening to the radio.  Last month, my partner un-boxed his hi-fi system from the early nineties.  Classic boxy set up!  We listened to France Inter for several weeks and then a ghost in the machine began to make a strange noise from the cassette player.  We couldn't see anything moving but we could hear it and it was irritating.  Being a confident guy he took it apart, found a bit of rubber that had died in the works, removed it and - Presto! The noise stopped.  One day, perhaps we'll get a specialist to replace that bit and make the cassette player good - but we really don't have many of those left anyway so it's cool.  Then he put it back together and asked me to put on a bit of vinyl.  Yes!  The sound was great. And so I danced.

Just do it!

And that's what we need to do.  Keep busy.  Find as much courage as you can and dance with me.  Sing and know that someone here is singing along, as James Blunt almost said in a song.  We're doing this together.  Nobody likes it and we're all looking forward to the time when we can go out and see each other in the streets and not have to stay on the other side of road.  We love hearing what you're doing.  We understand when you feel down and don't worry about sharing that either.  We are thinking of you.  And you know what I believe.  We will get through this together.

A demain, nos amis!  Link to Day 13