25 March 2020

I’ve been weaning myself from Facebook for several reasons.  The first is that the political polarization of Americans demonstrated there has disgusted me for a long time.  I do not know if it is getting worse during this crisis or if it just bothers me more.  I am consciously trying to not make this blog political but I am trying to share a different perspectives, so undoubtedly I will muddy that line.  The other thing is that we seem to be going through a very different pandemic here in France than most of my Facebook friends in the US are.  Obviously I have dear friends and readers all over the world (here in France, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, and the UK come to mind immediately), but most of my friends and family are in the US and like I said, you guys are having a very different experience than we are.  I had been toying with the idea of blogging for a while and started it before any of us knew what a game changer Covid-19 would be.  When we went into lockdown in France at the beginning of last week, I thought that it would be the death of my infant (infantile?) blog since I couldn’t go out and about and show you this beautiful region.  But now I realize that the only interest here is about perspectives anyway, and I still can share that with you.

There isn’t a Costco or a Sam’s Club for us to take our non-existent car to for buying food and toilet paper.  Most of what we eat comes from open air markets (marchés), or at least it did until they were closed by the government earlier this week.  We typically round out our groceries and household items from the neighborhood market.  I prefer the chain “Monoprix” over “Auchan” but I normally go to butchers and bakeries (boucheries et boulangeries) as well.  I typically go to little independent markets for spicier ingredients.   Before the plague, I would do a little shopping every day, filling my backpack with what I needed.  This works well with the way I like to cook where meals flow and evolve from day to day.  The rendered fat from a sautéed duck breast today goes into confit of duck legs that I might eat next week.  Most of the vegetable scraps and peels go into stock along with a bird’s carcass for soup.   I may decide that I want to make a stir fry from the meat I pick off the carcass once the stock is ready, but realize that I don’t have any fresh ginger, ginger goes on the daily shopping list.  Now, everything comes from the Monoprix or Amazon.  Amazon.fr does not have much in the way of food, but they do have other redeeming qualities.  One does not simply decide that it is time to go shopping and leave the house.   

Currently, we are not allowed to leave the house without filling out a form and carrying it with us.  I’m attaching the translated version of this form.  We are allowed one kilometer from our home only to accomplish very specific predetermined tasks.  We are not allowed to go to a dinner party or visit a friend.  We are not allowed to even take a walk together.  I’ve been sick so I have not left the house in nine days, but my wife says that the police are stopping and separating all people who are walking together.  The streets are empty and quiet.   This lockdown began last Tuesday at noon and was scheduled to last a minimum of fifteen days.  The restrictions became a little tighter yesterday (the one kilometer rule was imposed) and we were told to expect it to last as much as six weeks.  Contrast this to news of the American’s president remarks suggesting that an economic downturn would kill more people that the virus and he is toying with the idea of lifting restrictions.

I know I started to get a little political there and I don’t blame you if you want to skip over the next really long paragraph while I try to get it out of my system.

We are coming from very different places, America and France.  We have very different visions of what the new world will be like.  The American president may be right if a depression approaching 1929 scale is met with a 1929 Hoover response.  President Hoover also believed in supporting big business over people and that didn’t work out so well.   Initially, from here it looked like the American President and the British Prime Minister had shared strategies while they were at the hairdresser (obviously they have same barber).  Mr. Johnson was really late in placing any quarantine restrictions and it appeared to some people in the medical community that he was seeking a survival of the fittest solution.  If you spike the curve, everybody that’s going to die eventually does it quickly and then the entire remaining population can go back to work.  Never mind that your emergency medical infrastructure cannot possibly respond to such a spike in anything approaching a humanitarian manner.  People that might recover with adequate treatment might not have that opportunity.  And if a bunch of people die and then an effective treatment or cure is discovered, well there’s a special place in hell for you.  Apparently, Mr. Johnson realized that the bulk of his supporters (who voted for Brexit because they were old enough to remember the glorious British Empire) were the very same people who were going to die off if his government didn’t do something.  Accordingly, he imposed a twenty-one-day lockdown today.  The American President seems to be the odd man out in his response.  I appreciate that he is worried about the economy.  I am too.  I suspect that somewhere deep beneath his combover he understands that Hoover’s response to the depression made things worse for his basket of deplorables and FDR’s New Deal response started to make things better.   If you don’t like that, then be sure not to accept any stimulus money the government offers to loan you because it also stinks of socialism.   Obviously, the New Deal helped Americans but it did not end the Great Depression.  World War II ended the depression (finally, a strategy appears that I fear the American President is capable of embracing).  Meanwhile in France, the government has already taken real steps to assist the small businesses that are central to many of their revolutionary ideals.  Rents, loans, and utility payments were suspended last week and promises for other stimuli have been made.  But what about big business you ask?  The government is considering nationalizing them.   I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do but I don’t think the alternatives are better.  You could let them fail and possibly tank the national economy with them (by the way that would be the only pure capitalistic response).  You could take tax and dwindling tariff revenues (all paid by your citizens) and bailout these industries without giving your citizens any ownership of what they paid for (which is a fascist response).  Or you can nationalize them giving your citizens ownership of them.  Obviously nationalized industries don’t function as efficiently or innovate in the same way that private industry does.  European countries, even Western European countries, have managed to successfully privatize previously nationalized industries over the last century so the socialist path does not necessarily lead towards “ten-year plans”.   I have no idea what the best way forward in this new world is going to be.   I think the European approach and the American approach is very different; I believe that many Americans believe that because their economy is measured by the health of large corporations, that corporate solvency is the most important thing.  Corporations do not have the same rights as people in France.

OK, the political rant is over and it is safe for you to read again (even for deplorables).

I was pretty sick the last few days and was not capable of even the semi-coherent standards required by this blog.  My head cleared a little yesterday and Amazon.fr boosted my morale a lot more.  Amazon.fr and amazon.it had just announced they would be prioritizing deliveries and promptly changed the status of my scheduled delivery to “problement”.  I know that amazon.com had already done this so it came as no surprise.  I haven’t been real impressed with amazon.fr overall.  The French think it’s amazing but it is just a weak shadow of amazon.com.  But I did learn one realm in which .fr excels. 

 Last week I discovered that I could order alcohol on amazon.fr.  I ordered a bottle of cognac which came in two days.  I haven’t tasted it yet since I have several other open bottles of brandy, but it is there ready for me.  Yesterday, my new PerfectDraft beer dispenser came along with four each six liter kegs of Spaten München Helles.  My brewing friends will correctly recognize that having this diminutive tap system in my house is just another step down a very slippery slope, but I rationalize that the slippery slope is regulated by the fifty-six steep steps up the tower to my apartment which discourages larger kegs…  It’s not my favorite beer, but it’s the best I could find for this system and I really prefer draft beer over bottles.  Six liters is only twelve proper (Czech or German) portions of beer, or almost seventeen American portions, or eighteen French portions, so I don’t feel beer rich, just beer comfortable.  I did order a few more kegs last night, but I have no idea when (or if) they will come.  The Monoprix still has beer, even my beloved Pilsner Urquell, but it’s nice to have some redundancy in these uncertain times.  Today, three bottles of Lillet Rose came.  That’s my new favorite French fortified wine-based aperitif.  The beer costs me about the same delivered as bottled beer at the store and alcohol costs a little more.  The larger concern for me right now is supply.

France ran out of toilet paper last week.  We are not personally out yet.  I am amazed that we had toilet paper so long after America reverted to whatever you guys are doing.  The stores still have mouchoirs (Kleenex) so we have been buying that for the next phase of this new world.   French mouchoirs are much sturdier than American Kleenex.  They are triple ply and I have confidence that they will be up to the task.  Amazon did not have toilet paper last week so I ordered a case of paper towels.  Those got lost in delivery from Spain and now that I realize they were coming from Spain (which is even more infected than Alsace) I am OK with them not coming.   Amazon.fr did have toilet paper today so we will see if that comes.  I keep expecting the store to run out of coffee.   People who drink as much beer as I do require massive amounts of coffee to maintain equilibrium.  My machine and I prefer Illy brand whole beans.   The store still has my preferred coffee which amazes me.  I am pretending that it’s not coming from Italy (which is also more infected than Alsace).   The store has a random ever-changing selection of fresh meat and no flour.  Everything else is in full supply and the shelves are full. 

I am feeling better that I have in a while.  My toothache is subsided to a dull pain and my fever has broken.  I will leave the apartment today for a short walk after filling out my government pass and checking the map to make sure I know where the one kilometer boundary is.  I was able to write.  I have beer and toilet paper.  I have wine and mouchoirs in case the beer and toilet paper run out.  My wife found the batteries we needed to fix the remote control for the sound bar so I have stereo again.  Sure, we’re going to be stuck in this apartment for a while, but I feel safe.