Vaucluse Dreamer

It’s been a very strange year, and normally, by now we would be getting excited about a forthcoming trip to Menton and Nice for the colourful, February events, which happen to coincide with our wedding anniversary. It’s also the time of year that we begin to see, and feel, the first signs of spring, and start planning for everything we want to do in the months ahead.

Last year we had so many plans, all of which had to be altered or simply cancelled as the country went into lock-down, and the life we had all got used to was, very abruptly, turned on its head. All of a sudden, managing our life between the 2 countries became difficult, just as it had started to get so much easier.

So this year, like everyone, we can’t really plan to do anything with any degree of certainty, but perhaps that uncertainty is just going to be a fact of life for a considerable time to come. The certainty I had last week, that Andy will be back home with me by the end of next week, already seems a distant memory, with the announcement of the borders closing, which initially sent us both into a tail-spin.

The good news is that with his papers, he will be able to enter the country, and return home, the uncertainty now is how he will be able to travel, and whether the original plans we had made, will have to be changed at the last minute. We just don’t know, so I have told him to practice his front-crawl, just in case swimming is the only option open to him!

We are also waiting to see if we will go back into confinement, and if so what that will look like, as we are currently subject to a number of restrictions, including curfew between 6pm & 6am . Cafes, restaurants, bars as well as cultural venues are all closed and we wear masks when out and about in the villages and towns – but there is every chance that these restrictions will be tightened further, whether to the 1 hour 1 km exercise rule again, we don’t know, so the uncertainty continues.

One thing is for certain though, and that is that when Andy gets back, he will have plenty to get on with here, which will keep him busy during his quarantine period. Hopefully by then, the new walk-through will be finished and we will be able to start using the new kitchen space, although it will be a while yet, before we put a proper kitchen in it!

So in the meantime, I am continuing with the gentle routine that I have fallen into, taking Millie for a long walk each day, exploring new places and getting even further under the skin of the area that we love so much. We’ve learned so much about the area over the last five years, and the more we have learned and discovered, the deeper our love of the area has grown.

So I thought it was time to revisit something I did, soon after I started this blog, which is to do an A-Z of the area. I started it all those years ago, before we had bought the house, and with much less knowledge than we have now. Also I never actually got past P, and as such I feel it is a bit of unfinished business.

So this month, from tomorrow I will post a blog each day, which means that I will reach the end of the alphabet by the end of the month. I have a feeling that some of the letters will be a bit of a challenge, but it will give me something to focus on, and will add some certainty to each day, knowing that I have to get a new post done.

Tomorrow will start with A – the question I am mulling over now, is which A to begin with … will it be Aix, Apt, Avignon or perhaps something else….

Time to get my thinking cap on!