Sunday, March 22, 2020

French quarantine day 2

Saturday, March 21
6,635 steps (normally 15-20,000)

We all slept most of the morning! The last time I slept that long was about 20 years ago during my first trip to France. I was the first one awake at 10:40 am. We ate breakfast/lunch and played with Legos. We finally managed to get everyone dressed and out the door for a quick run.

Prepared with our "l'attestations de déplacement dérogatoire" and photocopies of our IDs and visas, we set off. I mapped a 2 km radius around our apartment--the maximum distance permitted by the French health minister. We didn't even get close to hitting the limit but still got in a good run of about 4 km as our path wasn't direct.

On our way home we got stopped by a group of police on bicycles, who told us that we were "trop éloignée." They also said that the maximum distance was 1 km, which is NOT what the health minister said. I told them that, and they replied, "Non, c'est 1 kilomètre maximum." At that point, we were within just 500 meters of the apartment! I informed them of that as well. (Maybe I shouldn't have--but I was staying within the rules!) As we had all our papers they couldn't do much other than send us on our way.

I ran into a friend of ours and her two kids at the end of our run. We chatted quickly while trying to maintain a proper distance. Her twin boys (Ivy's age) were fascinated with my Vibram Five Fingers shoes.

The rest of the day was Legos, origami, homemade marble jumps, and drawing. I baked a batch of artisan bread since our local bakeries have been closed (not sure if it's because of the quarantine or just when we've happened to walk by.) We also managed to do some "bricolage" and fix a broken window handle. There was a broken part in the middle, which we removed. It's not perfect but it will do until we can order a new part.

Zari started her homework and drew a picture of our dog Zeke who died when she was just 1 year old. He looks a little grumpy in his portrait but he was sheer joy in real life.

Eric got groceries at Lidl (like Aldi) and said he's never seen the store so empty. When he came home, I washed everything that was in plastic, glass, or metal packaging. I figured it's probably better to rinse things off just in case.

I'm also disinfecting tables, counter tops, doorknobs, light switches, and shoes on a regular basis. I use either rubbing alcohol or Simple Green d PRO 3 PLUS (recommended by friends of mine who work in labs and use it to disinfect). Yes, I brought a small bottle of concentrate over with me from the US! I have enough to make at least 10 gallons.

At 8 pm, we joined in with #OnApplaudit, where we clap and make noise in support of health care workers (and also for fun, I suppose!).




1 comment:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...