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| Bellac |
It has now officially been a week that we have been here in Bellac. The trip was uneventful, thankfully, and went as planned. We have finally tamed the Jet Lag beast and we are falling into the slow pace of life in a French village. It is even slower with the new restrictions on our movement. On our first afternoon in town, after stocking up at the grocery store, our neighbour Clare, dropped by to tell us about the latest update and decree. As of Tuesday 12:30, anyone out of their house has to have an “Attestation De Déplacement Dérogatoire” with one of the 5 reasons checked off.
- For work if you can’t work from home
- To get groceries or other necessities
- To go to the doctor
- To help family or others in need
- Brief exercise close to home, walking the dog, but no collective sports.
So we have been ensuring we have our papers with us at all times, and changing the date every morning. It is not as if we go anywhere other than, around the neighbourhood for walks, brief stints in front of the library to borrow the internet, as ours is still not functioning properly, and to the grocery store.
The grocery stores have large signs reminding you to keep your distance and at peak times, while controlling the number of people allowed in at a time. So far everything has been in stock with the exception of white onions, and yesterday eggs were only in cartons of six, not our usual 20 pack. We are heading up every two or three days, just to keep a week's supply or more, no hoarding here. Toilet paper here is still on the shelves.
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| Survial kit |
We do have limited access to the internet for email, checking on news, banking and the basics, just not powerful enough for streaming. The library's connection is good to download netflix shows and then we can watch them later. Also, now I am certainly reading more than usual. This morning the hot spot from our provider seems very strong and I was able to stay logged on while writing this blog.
We did meet another Canadian in the village. We overheard him speaking to the cashier in the small grocery store explaining that he was a Canadian. We introduced ourself in French, as Chris is fairly fluent, but later switched to English, as we chatted and walked. (keeping our distance). He and his partner bought a house near the church 2 years ago and were both planning to come over this spring, but Doug got trapped in Canada, so Chris was forced to head home. Home being Burnaby. He left Bellac on Saturday, and got one of the last flights out. He is now in isolation for two weeks in his Texada Island cottage.
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| Tea and biscuits. |
Over all, everyone is treating the social isolation very seriously. Our French and English friends here in the village are keeping their distance as they should. We are counting the days, or weeks or months before life returns to some normality. But spending time in the garden, going for walks, and relaxing with a glass of wine or two or three isn't a bad way to pass the time. We hope all of our readers are healthy and enjoying their down time as well.
