Thursday, October 8, 2020

An old style event.


From the vantage point above the river a view, despite the clouds, all the way into the neighbouring department. Sophie and Angus are alone at this time of the morning. The school buses have collected the children, parents have headed off to work and the little village is wrapped in a Marie Celeste silence. Yesterday saw 18,800 cases reported nationally so this eerie silence is perhaps not entirely unexpected. People are starting to 'self distance' again.


The homes owned by foreigners remain resolutely locked. Their shutters bolted.  Some of them have been like this for over a year. Others were closed up after Christmas in the belief their owners would be back down for Easter. Maybe this summer ?


It's hard to determine whether the pizza restaurant is open or closed. There are tables and chairs outside but the dirt on the windows suggest the owners have given up the fight. We study the menu and wonder at the liberties the French can take with Italian classics.


On our return to The Rickety Old Farmhouse Sophie opts for a restorative doze in the sun which has started to peep ,feebly, through the clouds. She ignores the central heating mans arrival - no biscuits so why bother ?  Loic  comes to blow leaves and is also ignored. Sophie found last nights debate to be an old style political event - which was just fine by her although she noticed that at the end quite a few folks weren't wearing masks.

7 comments:

Lisa in France said...

I couldn't believe Karen Pence wasn't wearing a mask at the end - she hadn't struck me as a rule breaker. Also surprised she resisted the urge to run up and swat the fly. The link about vending machines was eye-opening, as I never imagined they were owned this way in the US. Your photos of the village are very poignant - I'm so afraid that when this is finally over, whatever "over" means, we're all going to wake up and be horrified by what's been lost. I've always been relatively hard-hearted in saying that people need to adapt to change and we shouldn't be trying to save the lamplighters, but actually going through this is humbling.

Angus said...

Read an article yesterday which forecast that two thirds of the hotels in Indiana would never open again. That's going to be a wrench for a lot of small communities where the hotel and its restaurant was the local go to place for weddings, baptisms, special nights out. In some respects the loss of service jobs in hospitality and the arts means things will never be quite the same again

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
It's all getting a bit spooky again... I'll have the vege burger, hold the oignons... YAM xx

WFT Nobby said...

I don't think we've seen that view down the river before (and of course the geographer in me is trying to work out which river it is!)
The old village is so quaint, but sadly the 'Marie Celeste' look is not a healthy one.

Coppa's girl said...

The old village looks like a deserted film set, waiting for the actors to arrive...
Very wise of Sophie to ignore any workmen who don't bring biscuits - they are beneath contempt! But we're surprised she wasn't roused to demolish Loic's leaves.

Poppy Q said...

I will be glad when our nz election is over soon, as I hate all the electioneering news coverage and stupid debates. Personally I would prefer to see parties be limited to a 2 minute PowerPoint presentation when rather than slagging off other parties they were only allowed to present their policies on housing, tax, health, crime and education and how they would work to improve our lives. Simple and quick.

Taste of France said...

Are you familiar with "Money Stuff"? I am ashamed to say I just learned of it. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/business/matt-levine-bloomberg.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage