The time change — we set our clocks ahead an hour last Sunday — has caught up with me. My sleep patterns are disrupted and I'm getting up later in the morning. That was a decision I made, but it makes it hard for me to prepare a complete blog post by 6:30 or 7:00, which has been my goal for years now. Here are some fairly random photos I've taken over the years on the grounds of the Château de Valençay, posted in haste.
Amazing staircase, don't you think?
Covid-10 has caught up with France again. President Macron announce his plan for a new lockdown/confinement last night. The confinement will last something like five weeks, until early May, at least. No, this is not a poisson d'avril, as best I can determine.
The lockdown means we are not supposed to venture more than 10 kilometers (six miles) from home. I wonder how people who live more than six miles from a supermarket deal with that restriction. We're lucky to have two supermarkets, an Intermarché and a Super U, each within three or four miles. Both us us hoped to get haircuts in April, but now that won't happen. Business like that will be closed for five weeks at least.
The woman in the photo above and the one below is our friend Marie from Normandy. She's French and is a retired English teacher. She visited in 2011 and we went to Valençay because she had always wanted to see the château. It was an amazing coincidence how her dress matched the flowers growing on a big plot of land just on the west side of the château.
I still haven't been vaccinated. I called the doctor's office earlier this week and asked what the status was on vaccination appointments. I've been on a waiting list for about a month now. There was no news, I was told. I said I wondered if they were going to receive vaccines other than AstraZeneca any time soon, and the woman on the phone said no, any vaccine I get from the doctor will be AZ. I'm okay with that. But nobody knows when...
P.S. I just got the call from the centre médical. I'll get vaccinated tomorrow afternoon, April 2, at 4 p.m.
Just in time for the nationwide lockdown...
Just in time for the nationwide lockdown...
The photo of Marie among the wildflowers is magical. The gardens are exquisite, as is the architecture. Here, we simply wait for Public Health to contact us when it's our turn to schedule an appointment for the vaccine. I read yesterday that our age group should expect to be vaccinated this month. Here's hoping.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, you guys. See my P.S. on this post, above...
DeleteGreat news about your first shot! Such a shame lockdowns are still necessary. Hope this wave passes quickly. I'm so looking forward to the day we can tell stories beginning with "Remember the pandemic?" Stay well.
DeleteThis series on Valençay has been great and I feel I have been longer there than we did a few years ago.. This face was familiar, but I couldn't put a name on it! The last time I saw Marie, the three of us were having lunch at a restaurant near the cathedral in Rouen. Was it in 2010?
ReplyDeleteYes, 2010. Here's the blog post about that day in Rouen.
DeleteA vaccination at last, good news!
ReplyDeleteThe situation in France does seem dire. The lockdown and the vaccination programme here has finally produced a good result and numbers are going steadily in the right direction. It seems there is no gain without the pain.
I heard on a French news report that 2/3 of the AZ vaccine given out in the U.K. was manufactured in the E.U. The Europeans are pretty upset about that. That's why we've had a shortage here. I wonder if that is true...
ReplyDeleteThe British government placed the order early on and paid for millions of doses, way before any EU country ordered anything at all. It's a simple business transaction that has been politicised. The Europeans wasted weeks anguishing over how safe it was and ended up behind the British in the queue for supplies.
DeleteI meant to add that while the rest of Europe was dithering, millions of British people were vaccinated, one of the few things our government has got right.
DeleteThe U.K.-E.U. relationship gas always been contentious, I guess. I'm still a little nervous about the AZ vaccine. It will probably never be used in the U.S. But then, who knows what will happen next?
DeleteWe were in the AZ trials. I'm not unblinded yet, but if I got the real thing, it was no side efects. 2/3 chance. Glad you are getting vaccinated!
DeleteMy understanding is that the main reason for the AZ vaccine not being popular in the US is that it's been produced on a not for profit basis, sold at cost, and the big US drug producers would prefer theirs to be used instead so that lots of money can be made! The same applies in Europe. The money committed to the producers early on by the UK government helped to ensure its development.
DeleteThe French news report you heard was also wrong. Some supplies of the AZ vaccine came from a factory in the Netherlands in the early days but of the millions of doses given the vast majority now comes from AZ factories in the UK itself and the rest (about 5 million) from its partner company in India. The confusion arises because there are distribution sites in other parts of the EU where stocks are held.
DeleteI understand that India is about to go under with so many new covid cases every day.
DeleteAny country where the vaccine programme is patchy is going to be in trouble I think.
DeleteGreat news about getting the vaccination appointment! Woo hoo!
ReplyDeleteI had shot one 10 days ago, 40 days on a waiting list.
ReplyDeleteI’ll take ‘random shots ..... posted in haste’ anytime, thanks. And such good news about your shot!
ReplyDeleteIt’s amazing that Oklahoma has done a good job making the shots available to those that want them, mine were in Jan-Feb, and my wife gets her second one thanks to the Wewoka Indian Clinic. Now, shots are open to everyone over 16. Who’d thought?
ReplyDeleteGood news over there...
DeleteGood news and good luck! Is Luçay-le-Mâle within the 10 km limit?
ReplyDeleteNo.
DeleteNor are Montrichard, Contres, Loches, or Selles-sur Cher.
DeleteSo, where do you get your shot? At the hospital in Saint-Aignan?
DeleteAt my doctor's office in St-Aignan... across the street from the town cemetery.
DeleteHow convenient for a doctor to have his office across the street from the cemetery! It just dawned on me it is your dentist who is in Luçay-le-Mâle!
DeleteYou crack me up, CHM! We have a doctor friend with the last name of Payne which sounds like DR Pain lol.
DeleteCHM, I wondered why you were asking me about Luçay-le-Mâle. Walt's dentist in SF was Dr. Hack. Our barber in Saint-Aignan used to be Madame Barbier. And the garage where I bought my little Peugeot in 2003 was the Garage Danger.
DeleteLove seeing our friend, Marie enjoying Valancay. Great news about getting your shot tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteI loved finding those 2011 pictures again. A few days later, we all met up at the gîte near Mortagne in the Perche.
DeleteAnd we were able to go to the Spectacle which was so much fun!
DeleteIt was. Maybe I'll post some pictures from there.
DeleteMarie's dress also matches the marble veins in the statue pedestals, in addition to the flowers...
ReplyDeleteI noticed that too.
DeleteGood news on your vaccine shot. A friend in Aude said she was trying to get one, the AZ, via the pharmacist. I think Jean may be right about the bad rep on the AZ from the for-profit types.
ReplyDeleteI got my second, Pfizer flavor, on Tuesday. No reactions, although I gave myself yesterday as a rest day, just in case.
I think a lot of the "OMG I want the shot NOW" is because people are tired of the pandemic, and the end is so close -- and if those stupid kids would stop going to things like spring break and then breathing all over others and spreading germs, we might get through this. But post-break, case numbers are rising in the US. Again.
Bonjour Ken mais aussi bonjour à vous, Charles-H., Evelyn et Lewis, ainsi que Walt bien sûr,
ReplyDeleteWow ❗❗❗ I didn't know I'd be kind of... starring lol, via pictures on your great blog 😘
Thanks a 💐 !!!
I didn't know these pictures...
Ken, I dared to share these pics on my Fcbk page... But, I can suppress them if you prefer...
I keep wonderful memories of the stay at your place as well as of our holiday in "our" gîte, we were the "mousquetaires"then (I'm alluding to the great pic of us taken at "Château de Carrouges)
It was also so great to make your acquaintance, Charles-H., in Rouen, my hometown, and meet you in Paris, Claude J. 😘
What lovely days these were... 💕❗❗
Bises to ya'll 🌹🌷🌹🌷🌹