Five Quotes, vol. xxiii (and a France update)

 

It's been quite the week in France with terrorism and rising coronavirus cases causing the filling up of ICU beds.  And this Friday finds us once more under the second nation-wide lockdown of the year until at least December 1, but many expect it to be extended.  President Macron wants to get the number of new daily cases down to 5,000.  This past week they've hovered between 40,000-50,000, so the December 1 date seems unlikely; however, the government also really wants to keep the economy moving, so we shall see.

Lockdown in France means not leaving your house except for doctor visits, essential groceries, and an hour of daily exercise within one kilometer of your house, and when you do leave you have to have a form filled out with one of those stated reasons selected or risk a 135 euro fine.  People will be working from home if at all possible, with the main difference from the spring being that children will still be going to school.  Houses of worship will be open for people stopping by to pray or sit quietly, but no services will be allowed.

It all feels very sudden.  President Macron addressed the nation Wednesday night.  I don't think my mind has quite had time to wrap around it all yet and what it means for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Of course we already knew these holidays would look different, but now we have the official verification that for the first time in many years we won't be hosting a crowd for Thanksgiving.  We do still have Noreen, though, so that is good.

But on to this week's reading!  They are overwhelmingly about walking in Paris, which feels appropriate as I did a lot of that yesterday during the last day of freedom, taking pictures of the sites I never get tired of seeing, watching people crowd into cafes for one last meeting with friends.

"You feel at home in Paris because the things that you care about--strolling, thinking, loving, creating--are built into the fabric of the city."

- A Writer's Paris, Eric Maisel

"The flâneur is an observer who wanders the streets of a great city on a mission to notice with childlike enjoyment the smallest events and the obscurest sights he encounters."

- A Writer's Paris, Eric Maisel

"You can stroll in New York but the Tao of New York demands double time.  You can stroll in Los Angeles but the Zen of Los Angeles requires four wheels.  You can stroll in your small town, but you will run out of sights and strolling room in three minutes flat.  Most places are not designed or equipped to support two or three hours of ambling.  It is in Paris that the delicious dreamy strolling of the flâneur can be perfected."

- A Writer's Paris, Eric Maisel

"...a chilly Octoberish smell of cured leaves rose from the ground, the indescribable smell of fall and football weather and the new term that is the same almost everywhere in America."

- Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner

"There is nothing like a doorbell to precipitate the potential into the kinetic.  When you stand outside a door and push the button, something has to happen.  Someone must respond; whatever is inside must be revealed.  Questions will be answered, uncertainties or mysteries dispelled.  A situation will be started on its way through unknown complications to an unpredictable conclusion.  The answer to your summons may be a rush of tearful welcome, a suspicious eye at the crack of the door, a shot through the hardwood, anything."

- Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner