Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Brenda Bertholf has lived in Paris since 1991.
I just left our home for the first time since March 17th in search of flowers. There were lines around the block at the grocery store, lines in front of the neighborhood butcher shop, restaurants turned into pick up spots for pre-ordered food, awkward social distancing, old women walking tiny dogs, a man with a bandana homemade mask, new plexiglass screens at the boulangerie, occasional empty public buses, and closed down small movie theatres and hotels.
The most wonderful thing was a big sign thanking the mailman and another thanking the trash collectors for taking care of us.
And I cherished finding and sharing a smile with our friendly neighborhood homeless man and asking him if he needed anything. He said “no, Merci.”
I never found flowers which is so strange, but I was reminded that life does goes on.
“Confinement Chronicles” is a journal of how we are experiencing daily life during the coronavirus pandemic.
