Unfolding As I Go - Carole's travel blog

It's official: March 17th is the start of the lockdown in France. This is no news to anyone by the time I publish this. But I will have it in here as a memory of the past when I read this again in 10 years from now and remember some details of this historical moment and how people are coping and reacting. The President of France announced it in his speech last night: we are all to stay home, 'We are at war!' After the ban of public gatherings of over 50 people, the shut down of non-necessary stores and the closure of schools, it is now time to go to the next phase: a stricter confinment and important social distancing measures. We can only go out for specific reasons and only with a signed certificate. Fines can go up to €135, the goal being to limit going outside to the bare minimum. More about this in an article from March 17th. The panic of some people have spread to many and we have experienced a surprising phenomenon: people are hoarding toilet paper! It i...

March 17th. It all started as a usual morning at home at my Mom's. The first thing I do when I wake up is go see Blue. He sleeps in the kitchen and loves when we come to open the door in the morning, he stretches and jumps on his cat-tower and rolls around for cuddles. But after a while I heard him in one of the rooms meowing, which is weird because this cat never meows. As I came closer to him, he was also hissing at me. So strange, had never seen him like this. As he tried to move to the other side of the room, I realize he his back legs were dragging on the floor... he was half paralyzed! And he seemed to be in real shock and stress about what was happening to him. He was so panicked that he was crawling around the house meowing in despair.  I only got an appointment at the vet a few hours later and was initially thinking this will pass and he can be back to normal again. But my friend Annie told me the same thing happened to her cat in the past and she had to put h...

That Saturday night, March 14th 2020, my last night in Los Angeles (and my sister Michele's birthday!), I still didn't know where I was going to fly to the next day: Bali or Paris? Where would I want to be if I need to be in self-isolation for a long while? The situation wasn't clear at all, there was only one coronavirus case reported in Bali and I thought if things do escalate, where is it best to be 'stuck' during 1 or 2 months? I would actually be very happy to be stuck in Bali, working on a self-sufficient permaculture farm growing food and knowing I would have everything I need. Sounds to me like the perfect plan instead of being in France where so many cases are already reported, everything was shutting down, national emergency state declared by the President and supermarkets already missing supplies. How to decide? Should I stop my trip and return home earlier? Should I risk the long flights through Sydney to get to Bali and hope to be safe there?...