No need to hop out of bed so I arose at 8:23, began by a weigh-in 91.9 kg, dressed and ate the heel of yesterday’s baguette with goose pate. Then off to see the world. My episcerie, Chez Joelle is open and I bought expresso, pain Chocolat, a demi Baguet and the Newspaper, Sud Ouest, for 3,65 euros.
Then the adventure into quarantine began in earnest. I drove 6.5 kilometres to the city, Lesparre in the foolish hope that my French class,7 souls, might be still be on because it was less than 10 people. My hopes were dashed by the closed iron gates to the old post office building.
No problem. Off to the local coffee roaster, La Maison D’artemis to get a second expresso and some human contact. The manager told me I could buy and carry-out but no seating was allowed by the Presidential order. A favorite lunch spot, La Brochetterie, was closed but the Laverie was open and machines were running.
I’m saving my trip to the grocery store, so I have some place to see people today. We often want to get away from people, but we want to control it, not an official government order. Social isolation forces you back inside yourself more than many of us want to experience. I was never very enamored of retreats when you spent 2-3 days in silence. I do enough introspection by myself. Contact with people is a welcome relief from being with me and my thoughts.
I just got an What’s App St. Patrick’s day card from a friend in Belfast. We tried to talk on What’s App, which is the preferred European communication, but technology wasn’t flawless today. So he will try later. Perhaps the internet goblins will let us talk.
Last week I went to the Café Polyglot, a local once a month coffee klatch where people are speaking German, English and American, Spanish and French. I met a woman who lives in my village of Civrac. She was there on Sunday evening when they counted the votes in our municipal election. I saw her and she and her husband invited me to her home so Im going go and try to understand what happened in a village of 400+ voters. I think the Mayor lost his majority. So great change is about t happen in a village that has church and government school but no store or restaurant or bar. It does have a post office and a library open 8 hours a week. Which brings me to books.
I pray to god, Amazon, who says she will bring me some more reading material in English by the end of March. Does Quarantine apply to UPS trucks? I’ve seen them last week but that was before the D’eluge. I’m down to two good books but I may descend to the trash novels people have left in my bathroom.
This 500 words is a reflection of what isolation does to this person in the best wine country in the world.
