Welcome back!
It was coffee time. After breakfast, the morning paper, quickly glanced through these day as it’s all bad, we have our first coffee of the day, together generally unless, well you know, someone has an appointment or something.
Anyway, coffee time. Subject: where and when shall we go for a holiday. The COVID restrictions are easing everywhere. We have been extremely fortunate to have kept ourselves COVID free, or think we have. Staying home is no punishment. I can hibernate quite easily but my husband is more restless. He needs to ‘break out’ occasionally.
It is February. Still bitterly cold with dark mornings and evenings, though the change is in the air. Where and when to plan! Exciting stuff. I’ve got a long held dream. The French coast. It’s just we never really drove to the coast with the caravan, but went to the lavender fields or the vineyards in France. Even the Alps weren’t left out on our travels. That coast just never got a look in.
Right: the mood was set, a coastal road trip. We would go as far as, well my husband filled that in. “You have the coast I'd love the Pyrénées.” They form the French and Spanish border. We’d stay on the French side. The trip back would be roughly through the middle. Wow, within minutes we had the route in mind. Well, roughly. The timing would determine what we could explore and where.
Now I’ve mentioned my likes, cooking and the kitchen and my Woman Cave where I write and edit my YouTube videos. He likes a challenge and enjoys the voyage of discovery, delving into websites on the internet and researching places to stay, to visit, to eat at. You name it, he’ll find it. And find them he did. After weeks of research, applications and making sure we had the appropriate cancellation options we had 10 places to lay our heads at and 5 weeks in which to do just that.
How exciting. All that in a short period. During the planning war broke out in the Ukraine. How dreadfully dreadfully tragic. Here we were, the privilege of planning this trip meanwhile this atrocity happening right on our doorstep or on ‘our’ landmass so to speak. No huge oceans but roads, long ones I know but still. Here I was wanting to visit those places where thousands of lives were lost and here history was repeating itself. Why? For heaven’s sake, WHY?
War refugees poured into neighbouring countries. Fleeing the atrocities of war, of death and destruction. This has certainly had an effect on our thinking and planning. Yet, as close as this was to us- so far away it appeared as well. A contradiction in terms.
Being aware all things could become unstuck, we tentatively kept our plans open with the thought in the back of our minds we may need to cancel. But we didn’t need to. We were free to move from place to place at will. This was one of those moments when you realise that life is fragile. That plans are only plans and not reality till you make them so. Our time to depart would go ahead as planned. Weird though! Very very weird.
Be good - be kind - keep smiling!
PS Keep an eye on my YouTube channel. Trip videos to be posted there soon.
Enjoy the 2019 French trip by clicking on the link below.
or
No comments:
Post a Comment