A Miracle Day

Fourteen months. That’s how long it has been since I’ve seen my parents. 

And it has been a harrowing year to live across the ocean, knowing that a pandemic was attacking and killing thousands of people in my parents’ age group.

That’s why it seems like a miracle that today, I got to hug them again. 

Reunited

I know, I know. It isn’t safe to travel now. The odds of getting out of locked-down France, into Spain and onto a flight to Florida seemed low. But my parents have both had their vaccinations and Earl and I have had our first shot, which the doctor said should give us about 85% coverage. It was a risk we needed to take. 

France locked down nearly a week ago. We got our negative Covid test results Thursday morning and our friends Jack and Jules drove us an hour to the train station in Perpignan. 

There we caught a train to Barcelona, which takes about an hour and a half. There were about 5 people in our train car. Spain is more open than France, but people are all wearing masks and staying distant. 

We took a walk from our hotel Thursday evening, finding a Starbucks (the one decadence I miss from the States) and sitting near La Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi designed cathedral that is still unfinished, to drink our coffee. 

No crowds taking pictures this time in Barcelona

We got take out from a Turkish restaurant and carried it back to our hotel room. In Spain, restaurants are allowed to serve people until 5 pm. Then they can offer take out dining from 5-10. Their curfew is at 10, which makes France’s 7 pm curfew seem pitiful. 

We had a breakfast buffet at the hotel. It felt weird to eat inside a restaurant. There was only one other person in the big room. The buffet had hand sanitizer and plastic gloves at both ends to limit the spread of virus. 

Only one other person was eating breakfast

A taxi picked us up at the hotel and we walked into a very empty-feeling airport. There was no one in line in front of us so we quickly checked in. I hadn’t been allowed to check-in online because the first question American Airlines asked was whether we had visited South Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, etc, recently. Since we were flying out of Spain, you can guess the answer to that question. Answering yes meant we couldn’t check in online. 

There were many helpful people at the airport. I always feel guilty saying “no hablo espagnol” and being satisfied with “hola” and “gracias.”

Our plane looks so small from here. 

When we got on the plane, we realized how fortunate we were to find a flight going abroad at all. This flight from Barcelona to Miami had only 29 passengers on a flight that could take more than 200. Thanks, American Airlines for not canceling. 

The flight attendants offered us our choice of seats (not in business or first class, obviously). 

Fellow passengers were few and far between

We had snacks and lunch and little cups of ice cream with a plastic spoon. 

In case you've forgotten what an airplane meal looks like.
Noodles and sauce, salad, cheese, bread and chocolate cake for dessert. 

If only it had a wooden spoon. 

I finished reading a book and watched a French movie about a woman hiking with a donkey, hilarity ensues. 

We landed in Miami because it seemed a better option than hanging out in airports and transferring to another plane. Instead, we reserved a car to drive the three hours to Mom and Dad’s. 

We return the car to a nearby town Saturday morning and then we’ll quarantine at Mom and Dad’s for 10 days. And if all goes well, we should get to see those well-loved sons of ours in Ohio, one of whom we haven’t seen in 14 months either. 

My heart is full at the miracle of it all. 

The South of France is Calling

If you’re American, do you remember commercials when you were a kid tempting you to travel to Florida during the cold winter up north? I do. My brother and I would sing along, “when you need it bad, we’ve got it good. When you need it bad, come to Florida...” We’d bug our parents to take us on vacation. 

I feel that way now about the south of France. Every picture I take, I think, everyone must be longing to join in. Of course, France is closed down now, slowly handing out vaccines, and people can’t travel here for vacations. 

My husband looking like the lone person along the Mediterranean at Narbonne Plage. 

I also realize that my life may always be split between wanting to be here for my French life, and wanting to be with my parents (in Florida) and my sons (in Ohio) and Grace and Jack (who are in lockdown in Dublin). 

Sunday morning was glorious as we set off to Esperaza market. The quirky market continues to offer a bit of everything. 

View from the bridge

Plenty of vendors. The gendarmes patrol and warn people to wear masks

We bought a bag from this vendor. She makes them out of saris from India.

This booth has so many musical instruments that would torture our
 nieces and nephews if we bought them for their children. 

That afternoon, we went on a 16 mile bike ride, stopping for a drink in a friend's garden at the halfway point. The sun, the sky. It feels exhilarating.

Then Monday, I had another day off. 

The temperature was predicted to be warm here 21 degree Celsius, 70 Fahrenheit. At the beach, the temperate would be cooler, but signs have indicated that France might be going into lockdown again, so I wanted to take any chance to (safely) break away from our town and explore. Our friend Jo came along, which added to the fun.

Narbonne Plage

We bought lunch to go from a restaurant across the street from the beach, offering three courses for 19 euros, but we settled for a starter and entrée for 16 euros. Salad with avocado, lardons and radishes. A main course of chicken Senegal style with rice and plantains in coconut milk sauce. 

We took the food across the street to the beach, and the restaurant owner gave us actual silverware to use after we promised to return it. 

If you have been able to eat out for the past six months, you may not understand how luxurious it feels to get food from a restaurant. We barely even complain about cooking anymore since we're so used to cooking every meal. But nearly every time we take a local trip, we make sure we can get take away food to enjoy.

After a nap in the sun and a walk on the beach, we had ice cream cones for dessert.

On the way home, we stopped at a winery for a wine tasting. Another luxury in these Covid times. We tasted four of the six wines offered and ended up buying two of them before hurrying home to beat the curfew, or as the French say, couvre feu, which literally means cover fire. 

Macron is slated to speak Wednesday morning. He may be closing down France again. Although our region is not very high for Covid, France overall has 100% of its ICUs full. Our ICUs in Occitanie are at 67%. It's time to get this virus under control, again. 

Four Weeks of Confinement - So Far

I imagine that life in France isn't that different from life in the States right now. 

I go out for walks or to the grocery store. 

I huddle around the coffee truck during the twice weekly market, "accidentally" running into friends as we surreptitiously lower our masks and sip café crème in the crisp fall air. 

France has been under quarantine since October 30th. Here, it's called confinement -- con-feen-mahn. 

Our area of France, the Aude department, has had low numbers of the virus throughout, but we're surrounded by cities that have high numbers and full hospitals.

What does confinement mean? It means that every time I leave the house, I fill out a form that says why I am going out. Americans might scoff at this idea, but it does make you think twice about why you're going out and where. You also have to "certify" that you are telling the truth when you generate the form. 

So why can I go out? For 1 hour a day within 1 kilometer, I can go for a walk or exercise. I'm also allowed to go shopping -- only for essential things. The big groceries have blocked off sales of socks and underwear and books and candles -- anything the government deems non-essential, because it isn't fair to the small shops which sell those things that have had to close. Of course, people just order them from Amazon, so they've really made more business for Amazon. 

Today's package from Amazon should have a stuffed panda bear in it for Louis Catorze, our overgrown kitten, to attack

My morning walk today, frost on the ground and the sun moving toward the mountains

Today as I started my walk, I imagined sitting at the café in the main square and sipping coffee with friends. What a luxury that is. First, to gather with friends most mornings just to chat. Second, to have the time to linger over coffee and maybe a second one. To cross the square to the bakery and bring back a pain au raisin or a croissant abricot and break it apart, scattering the crumbs onto the sidewalk then shooing away the pigeons that eye the crumbs. How many mornings have I spent savoring coffee with friends?  The pocket of my trench coat still holds three little chocolate squares that come with our morning coffees - just in case of emergency. 

Another morning walk, this one along the river on flat ground. 

The last confinement, Grace and Jack were here with us. We were very careful because several people in our town had Coronavirus. We were keeping each other safe. 

This time, we aren't as careful. We see people a couple at a time, maybe coffee in our kitchen or a glass of wine in their salon. If the weather's nice, of course, we stay outside, to limit exposure even more. 

People have rebelled against this lockdown more so than the spring. 

"The numbers haven't come down," one friend lamented when we met at the grocery store to talk and shop while wearing masks. 

"But it hasn't been two weeks yet," I pointed out. It takes two weeks for the virus to stop spreading. And sure enough, on the following Friday, the numbers began to creep down. 

We had an 8-week lockdown in the spring and we had a pretty normal summer. The quarantine was worth it for the lives it saved and the feeling of normalcy throughout the summer. People in the States have been in a perpetual quarantine since March if they're being careful. 

Our area may not have needed to lockdown based on the cases, but if the whole country doesn't quarantine, the virus continues to spread and grow. 

In our "normal" summer, we skipped meals with the entire town, but we did enjoy concerts and dancing. We drank outside in bars. 

We visited castles with Grace and Jack, along with Jim and Theresa.

Stone built on stone

We traveled to Nice and Aix en Provence,

A glorious fountain

I went on a hike with my friend Claudine

 and Earl went on a hike in Spain. 

Along El Camino de Santiago

So if this lockdown of four weeks or six weeks helps us have a "normal" Christmas. Then I'm willing to stay in my house and go our for gorgeous walks, watching the fall days pass. 

And I'll also be counting my blessings. 

Another day, another view of the mountains

France Reopening

First, let me say that it seems strange to write about normal life when my home country is in such pain. My heart is there. It is time for us to protect everyone and to make the words in our Constitution true - equality for everyone. 

Today, June 2, France took its next step and allowed restaurants and bars to reopen with social distancing and up to 10 people at a table. We have to wear masks walking in and walking out but can take them off at the table. 

We weren’t certain which restaurants would be opening on the first day. We did hear that the Fleuve was making renovations before opening on the 9th, and like an American, I wondered why they didn’t make renovations during the past three months when everything was closed. 

And the Colibri only opens from Wednesday through Saturday, so they weren’t about to open on a Tuesday. 

I took a walk this morning and as I crossed the old bridge, I saw the owner of the Palace putting out chairs and tables. I asked if they were open today and he said, yes, but not until 8. It was 7:57! 

I continued on through town and past the Promenade PMU. People were already filtering in for their morning coffee. A gendarme stopped to chat with the butcher before heading to the PMU where he was greeted by the regulars who hadn’t been there for two and a half months.  Everyone was jovial. 

The sun shown brightly as if blessing the reopening. 

After a shower, I wandered over to the Palace, choosing a table with a view of the old bridge. 

As I waited for Jules and Tina to join me, I snapped a selfie. 

Soon, the owner Michel came out wearing a mask to take my order, but decided he would wait until my friends joined me. 

That’s ok, I didn’t mind sitting in the sun and enjoying the first day back in a cafe. 

Lockdown Eases

On Monday, the lockdown in France eased.
We were allowed to go out without an attestation, a paper that said where and why we were going somewhere. The reasons were limited -- fulfilling essential needs, like medical or grocery, exercising within 1 kilometer of our home, or helping others who couldn't go out.
We weren't even allowed to go to the grocery with other family members. Only one person per car.
As of Monday, we are allowed to travel, no papers required, within 100 kilometers of our home. That's quite a bit for us. It includes Carcassonne, Toulouse, the Mediterranean -- but the beaches are still closed.
Andorra and Spain are also in are 100 kilometer area, but the borders are still closed to both of those places.
We were so excited to venture out of our house and to take Grace and Jack to see some of the beautiful places near us.
Remember that they arrived on Friday before the lockdown happened on Tuesday. Since then, they've been sheltering in our house, taking occasional walks and stopping at the bakery sometimes.
We debated going to an old medieval town and showing them the market. It's about an hour away.
But the weather forecast had other plans.
The forecast has been rain for the entire week.
Monday afternoon, we went about 10 kilometers away to Rennes le Chateau. As you can see from the picture, the weather was ominous. 

On a sunny day, the view from here is beautiful.

Rennes le Chateau is one of those mysterious places that has to do with a priest and sudden influxes of money that allowed him to build this tower among other beautiful structures.
Our next day out was planned for Wednesday. Earl and I needed to pick up our visas. In France, they're called carte de  séjour or titre de  séjour. They give us permission to stay in the country for another year.
We had our appointment on February 25th and received a text that the cards were ready on the Friday before lockdown. Obviously, we hadn't been able to retrieve them.
Strategically planning when to arrive and how to avoid long lines, Earl and I drove to Carcassonne. Grace and Jack decided not to come along because rain was once again forecast for the entire day.
The map on our phones took us right through Carcassonne rather than around it because traffic was so light. We found a parking spot a block away from the prefecture. We waited maybe 5 minutes for the security guard to allow us in. Another 5 minutes and our cards were in our hands. By 8:59 a.m., we were back in the car.
But wait! I paid for parking until 10 a.m., I wanted to protest.
In years past, we would go with friends and celebrate our new visas with breakfast in an outdoor cafe. This year, no restaurants or bars are open.
Instead we visited a home improvement store for paint and a used furniture store where we found chairs for our kitchen table.

The living room in the background is in a state of flux because the drywall is going up this week. 

Throughout the quarantine, this is how our living room has looked. Metal supports on the ceiling and along the walls. 

In preparation for drywall

Our builder friend Kris put up the boards a week before quarantine ended. How did we convince him? We had a new kitten arriving and couldn't allow it to hide inside unfinished walls. 

Next came the mudding, or as the British call it, plastering, to cover the boards. 

Now the walls and ceilings are complete and we are waiting a week for them all to dry, because everything is humid as we apparently are going through a rainy season. Soon we'll be able to do a few mist coats and then to paint.

A week ago today, we picked up our new kitten, Louis Catorze -- that's a play on the name Louis Quatorze, the 14th. The Sun King.


Louis is an upstairs cat right now as we work on the downstairs, but he's mostly fine with that because the stairs are a challenge to him.
The rain is scheduled to dry up next week, so we're hoping for some adventures then.
Meanwhile, our market has still been happening every Wednesday and Saturday with fruits, vegetables, cheese, honey and plants, so we get to walk around and make eye contact over our masks. And I heard even the coffee truck has returned, so I'm super excited to see all the vendors that arrive Saturday morning.

France Quarantine Continues

In many ways, the rules have gotten stricter here in France. We're only allowed to leave the house once a day. We have to take a paper that says we are going to buy groceries or medicine or to help someone who can't go themselves. But the main reason I leave my house is to exercise each day, usually a run, but sometimes a walk.

We are supposed to stay within 1 kilometer of our homes. I roughly try to comply with that.

 I'm allowed to walk with people who live in my house, but no one else.

I try to take a picture on every walk or run to share with my running friends

It's been nearly a month since we raced over the border to Barcelona to pick up Grace and Jack. Even then we were social distancing and the next morning they closed all the bars and restaurants.
I've been to the bakery a few times 

I got breakfast and lunch at the bakery on one trip. 

and the grocery store twice.

The local grocery set up a series of barricades where people can wait until it is there turn to get in the store.

The stores limit the number of people who can go in, so sometimes the longest wait is outside before you can get in.

I've talked to friends from our balcony and over fences.

I'm not sure if Grace and Jack feel lucky to be stuck here, but I'm really glad they are. We have four hands for euchre. And just last week I received a mahjong set, so we can play three or four-handed mahjong.

I used to play mahjong with my homeschool mom friends so it brings back lots of good memories.
Earl apparently never played back in the day, but he is being a good sport and learning the game. 

What else are we doing to pass the time? Well, as soon as the quarantine started, I caved and we ordered a television.

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We rarely watch television in France so I had argued that we didn't need one; we could simply watch shows on the computer during cold winter nights that we weren't out with our friends drinking wine, dancing, telling stories.
But realizing that the four of us were going to be inside, except for an hour per day of exercise, I immediately went on Amazon and ordered this 43-inch television. It isn't a show stopper, but gives us something to do on nights when we aren't playing cards or mahjong.
Our dinners have drifted later, usually starting around 8 p.m., so there isn't a lot of time afterward to watch TV.

We have scavenged a few plants for our garden.
We should have enhanced the soil first with alpaca dung from our friend with alpacas

My life remains much the same. Working most days teaching English to Chinese kids. The hours are longer because they aren't in school so can take classes anytime of day. I'm scheduling two days off every week from teaching. I considered continuing to teach everyday since we're quarantined, but I realized that I need a few days where I can go for a leisurely walk and not rush to shower and get dressed, a day where I can linger at the breakfast table over coffee. So I'm allowing myself those days off.
 I'm also teaching an online university class and am lucky enough that another one starts in May. I take two days off from being online for my class, but unfortunately they aren't the same days that I don't teach the Chinese children. The only day that I don't work at all is today, Wednesday. And it feels like a bit of a vacation.
I know I'm fortunate to still be able to work, so I won't complain about it.
A few restaurants are open these days for take out, so that is a nice break from someone cooking for 21 days straight. We had galettes last Friday -- those are savory crepes, with a delicious bottle of hard cider.
Maybe we'll try the Vietnamese restaurant next or the pizzeria so Grace and Jack can experience some local eateries.

We have also committed to getting a kitten.

Nougaro, who we are currently planning to call Nougat, will be ready for adoption in mid-May. Grace has been having withdrawal since she can't have her cats brought over. We've always had cats so decided it might be a good time to get one. He comes from a local animal rescue organization.

That's our life in quarantine. We'll continue to take walks and look at beautiful scenery. Hope you're all being safe and stay healthy.

Mountains through an arch

Coming Out on the Other Side of Coronavirus

I was Facetiming with my niece recently, home on spring break with her two girls, and she asked whether the kids in China know what's going on. She meant what was going on in the States as people began to self-isolate.
They have lived what's going on, I told my niece. They aren't concerned about what is happening in the States or in France where I live because they have been quarantined for more than seven weeks.

And what happened during that isolation? More than 81,000 cases of coronavirus and only 3,255 deaths in China. Their quarantine made a huge different. Italy, slower to quarantine, has 47,000 cases of the virus and 4,032 deaths already. (Stats from Worldometers and unfortunately they will have gone up by the time you check it)
Slowly, through the eyes of its children, I see China emerging from the virus.
I teach English online to Chinese children, one on one.

 I start most classes with "What did you do today?" For months now, the answer has been: "I stayed home."
Recently though, Justin set a white transformer in front of the screen and said, "I played transformers in the park with my friend."
I was so happy for him.
A new student, Milo, dressed in a tan shirt and a red kerchief, the Chinese equivalent of boy scouts I suppose, joyously told me, "I picked strawberries today!"
My heart soared, imagining these children who have been isolated in their apartments for nearly two months going into the sunshine and pulling red berries from the vine, tasting the sunshine in each one. And I bet they are the sweetest berries since the skies are clear of pollution from the lack of factories running.
Henry told me that the weather is sunny and the skies are sooo blue!
One thing I noticed when the students were in lockdown was that parents had taken to cutting their children's hair. What's the first place many of the students go? To get a haircut.
William told me he went out for the first time, but the barber shop was closed so his hair is still a bit shaggy. Jacob wore closely cut hair, looking like himself again with his shy smile as he nodded that he had gone to get a haircut.
What does this mean for those of us who are seeing restaurants and bars close, stores shutting their doors and government orders to stay home?
It means that we can come through on the other side.
We can stay in our homes, only venturing out for groceries or medicine or solitary exercise if we don't live in big cities.
We can video chat and play card games and do puzzles and watch Netflix until our brains are numb. We can clean our homes and put up those shelves we always meant to get to.
We can write novels and compose music and draw pictures.
We can have conversations and make love.
The sun will be shining in mid-May when we slowly emerge from our homes again, hopefully with as good a result as the Chinese had.

Living in Quarantine

The events in France happened quickly, as I'm sure they have all over the world. Restaurants and bars were closed on Saturday night. Then word came that President Macron would make a speech Monday night.
I'm generally a Macron fan, but I think he botched things by announcing that he would make a speech and not giving people the details. That caused a panic on Monday that filled all the groceries and will probably cause a spike in coronavirus cases.
On Monday around noon as I was teaching, Earl came upstairs to say that the rumor was Macron was quarantining everyone starting at 8 p.m. and no one would be allowed out even to get food. We tried to logically think whether this could happen. It didn't seem right, but we didn't know. Would they deliver food to people in little boxes like when the train is delayed?
Grace, Jack and I had been planning to go to LeClerc, a Walmart-type store with groceries and many other goods, when I finished teaching because Jack needed some IT supplies and the only stores open were groceries. I didn't think it would be bad, because I hadn't seen widespread panic in France.
But the announcement of a coming announcement with no one knowing what would be said sent everything into overdrive.
The parking spots were few and the shopping carts were fewer.
We agreed to separate, I went to get some staples while Jack and Grace went to the tech section of the store. There was toilet paper. Noodles were completely gone, but I was able to find several boxes of soup -- they do boxes instead of cans here.
The only onions were red onions, which Grace is allergic to so I couldn't get onions. I found some chocolate bars (priorities) and headed back past long lines that stretched from the cashiers at the front to the middle of the store, line after line of people.
I had somehow missed the paper towels and I was retracing my steps. When I found them I started toward the front of the store knowing Grace and Jack had gotten in line and saved a place in the mass of people.
Perhaps because I was not near the grocery section, but down near the beauty products, I found a line with only two people in front of me and I stopped moving. Grace and Jack were in a longer line and came to join me.
The picture of the people in line doesn't begin to show the craziness,

I don't know why the lines were so much worse farther down the line of cashiers. 

but as we saw all the people clustered together waiting to pay, we predicted that many people were exposed to the virus that day, and that's where Macron went wrong. If he'd let us know we will be allowed to go out for food during the quarantine, people wouldn't have panicked.

We also noticed that there were people in line, at least two that we saw, buying trees.

People in line buying trees because "quarantine."

Who says, "well, it's going to be a quarantine so I better buy a tree?"
That night, Macron announced the quarantine. People had to stay home unless they were going to the grocery store, the doctor, the pharmacy, to take care of someone who cannot take care of themselves, or to exercise alone. And if they were out doing any of these things, they needed to carry a paper called an "attestation."
I made a joke about "papers, please" as in Nazi Germany. And the next morning as I headed out on a run, my French neighbor asked if I had heard the news?
I said I had and he went on a bit of a rant about "papers to run, papers to eat, papers to go to the grocery!" I could tell he was not happy about the situation.
I said perhaps it would make the situation better and he gave a French shrug.
Tuesday, our first day in quarantine, was kind of normal except the builders didn't come, leaving us with a ceiling that is boarded for drywall but not mudded yet, and walls with support beams and no boards. It may be weeks before they return so we have arranged things as well as we can.
I taught from 9:30 - 2 and then had to work on my online class for the university, so it was just another work day for me.
Earl went to the butcher and said that the small grocery store in town was only allowing in two people at a time. The post office wasn't taking any mail, so Earl wasn't able to mail his absentee ballot to vote in Florida's primary.
Our friend Derrick, a loquacious Irishman, wondered how he would stand being quarantined. I suggested that he text me when he heads to the market and we could stand in line together, but I guess that defeats the purpose.
Grace, Jack Earl and I had dinner together and played cards. Jack and I lost 10-9 so it was a close match with no one feeling they were slaughtered.
I went for a regular run this morning. These horses seemed to know about the quarantine as they both stared at me, wondering if I had my papers, no doubt.

Today we spent some time cleaning our small yard, pulling greenery that has decided to grow in what was once a concrete patio or in the cracks of our house.
As I was sweeping, I found two empty snail shells and a Bueno Kinder wrapper.

Sweeping up in the garden

Earl is busy tackling the "cozy room" which has become filled with construction debris as we continue to work on our house.
After a few loads of laundry, Grace and I settled on the veranda with some sweet drinks -- menthe a l'eau.

Mint syrup and water, plus Grace's knitting.

No one wants to be quarantined, but hopefully it slows down the virus, and we're lucky to be in a warm environ today where we can sit in the sun and sip green drinks the day after St. Patrick's Day.
How bout you? Has your life changed since the virus arrived?

Joyous Reunion in the Nick of Time

On Friday morning at 5 a.m. Earl and I got in the van we had borrowed from friends and drove to Barcelona to pick up Grace and Jack.
They had gotten on their cruise ship, Allure of the Sea, on March 1 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and they docked on Friday the 13th in Barcelona, Spain. I'd felt anxious that the ship might not be allowed to come to port because of coronavirus and worried that we wouldn't be allowed to leave France to get to Spain to retrieve them.
People texted me asking if the borders had been closed. Each time it made me turn quickly to the news, searching to see if there was a report I hadn't heard about. But borders remained open, no one was on "lock down" in either country.
The drive to Barcelona took three hours and then we got a little lost around the Port of Barcelona and ended up following Grace's iPhone signal to find her amidst a crowd of people who had disembarked from the 16-story cruise ship.
What a relief to see the two of them.

What an excellent opportunity to share their wedding photo

We piled up the four big suitcases and a few carryon bags into the van and escaped the throng of people waiting for taxis or buses.
Originally, Grace and Jack had planned to spend a few days in Barcelona before we picked them up, but with the virus gaining strength, we agreed to fetch them early.
We aren't worried about them bringing the virus to Quillan since they've been on the ship 13 days, but we're feeling a bit guilty about bringing them here where the virus has struck.
As I understand it, a local doctor and his wife visited Egypt. Then they returned to Quillan and the doctor began to see patients. Fifteen days after he returned, he and his wife were diagnosed with Coronavirus. Last week, the number of people diagnosed in our village of 3500 people or so was up to 14. That's a lot of cases here.
My anxiety focused on getting Grace and Jack home though. So, after we picked them up, feeling hugely relieved, we followed the coast for awhile, debating if we should find a place along the Mediterranean to have coffee. Jack pointed out that they had been at sea for two weeks so really didn't feel the need to have breakfast along the waterfront.
Instead, we booked it toward France, admiring the mountains that jut along the coast between France and Spain.
With little fanfare, we crossed into France, feeling a sigh of relief that they had arrived and we had returned to France with them.
We stopped in Perpignan and the sun decided to come out. We sat along the canal eating lunch

Sunshine and the first French meal for them. 

 and then we returned to Quillan along the windy road, Grace snapping pictures of random castles on mountain tops and accusing me of underplaying the beauty of the countryside.
If I haven't told you that I live in a beautiful place, and I think I have, it's amazing.

Morning in Quillan

On Saturday, we learned that the Port of Barcelona had been closed. No more ships could dock there. That same day, France and Spain announced lockdowns. No more restaurants or bars would be open. Only essential stores, like grocery stores and pharmacies would be open.
We came very close to not getting Grace and Jack home.
For now, we're spending a lazy Sunday, grateful that we're all together. We'll deal with the virus if it comes our way.