Easter has never been that special for us. During our working lives, Easter always came at what seemed an awkward time. Peter and I never took time off work during school holidays so we would suddenly find ourselves on the Thursday evening before Good Friday, having not made any plans at all nor done any shopping. The Easter weekend then seemed to arrive more often than not with chill and rain. Not a particularly good time for a holiday weekend.
Now here we are in lay France and Easter is no big deal either and it usually passes us by without much fanfare although more Easter eggs are available these days and good things are on sale in the shops to have as an Easter meal.
So under French lockdown we expected our quiet rural life to continue as it has been in the weeks before. With good weather forecast we and the neighbours were planning time outdoors, some Easter BBQ lamb roasts and Zooms with family and friends. With no frost forecast, the brave were planning to get their vegetable plants out and the terrace pots organised with bright geraniums. We had just had the excellent news that our local nursery had opened for ‘drive’ orders - in the UK click and collect - which is a lot more available under lockdown from shops and nurseries which are not open for normal shopping.
Peter headed to the market early on Saturday and reported loads of people, even at the early hour. But not like normal, he said, people were not respecting the 2 metre distancing - they were being pushy and trying to jump queues. We really didn’t think much more about it. Generally, with more people around, weekends are stay at home time for us except for a quick visit to Montaigu market.
On Sunday we had a minor Easter breakfast celebration with eggs and asparagus soldiers.......
....and some rather yummy hot cross buns.
We managed a small veal roast for our Easter meal. Roast veal has always been a super favourite for me, ever since I was served it in Paris when on an exchange about age 12 by the family I was staying with. It’s delicious cold too. We roasted our meat with tomatoes and onions and served it with garlic potatoes. I made a gariguette trifle for pud.
There was even time to find a corner for a quiet read - with the cats for company.
Imagine our surprise when we found out at our regular zoom coronapero with neighbours that the area had been invaded over the weekend. Many people - and their children - had arrived for the Easter holidays. But where had they come from (Paris? Other cities)? and when did they arrive (in the middle of the night)? They must have had places to stay as no hotels are open. We heard worryingly that our mate down the road with a large gite had 13 people staying all weekend.
You can imagine that our surprise turned to outrage. Our shops had been raided! Our rural peace destroyed! Our cleanliness sullied!
Where were the gendarmes who had regularly stopped us on our shopping excursions or as we exercised? We heard that they had been moved to the motorway junctions and other key driving points. So how could they allow these interlopers to arrive? What were the travellers putting on their travel declarations? There is no tick box for visiting the family, or heading to your country home. So were they fined?
It’s said that the phone companies knew that people were on the move because of their mobile phones. There was talk of many thousands of people heading down to SW France.
A trip to the local supermarket later in the week confirmed that a large percentage of the cars in the carpark were from far away departments. So much for lockdown! We will see if the rates of infection in Tarn et Garonne increase!
No point in being outraged. The cats didn’t care - they are just happy that we are here.
