Confined to home

Apologies for the long silence. I’m getting used to being in just one place for more than a few days. Normally, at this time of the year, I would be here, there and everywhere travelling pretty much constantly, sharing the art, history, culture and natural beauty of our world with students eager to expand their knowledge and to appreciate the wonders of the world around them.

The Covid 19 pandemic has stopped all that. Students and teachers who had been preparing to travel, who had been excited at the prospect of the many wonderful things they were due to experience have been disappointed. Their wings have been clipped, their horizons narrowed. The opportunities for cultural exchanges that do so much for mutual understanding between different peoples have been vastly curtailed. The chances for young people to blossom are fewer.

I haven’t felt like writing, I haven’t felt I had much to write about. My last two tours were stressful and tiring and I didn’t have the energy to write about them. Museums, monuments, airports felt like places to be feared. Uncertainty was a constant companion. The nagging worry of being quarantined or stuck somewhere started to haunt me. I just wanted to get back home.

Then the situation became urgent. Travel bans and lockdowns started to be imposed. It began to seem imperative to get students home. Flights were rescheduled, escape routes planned. We flew from Spain to London, the groups were split, half were sent to Zurich, half to Frankfurt and from there to an approved airport in the States and then again a flight from there to their home city. I found a flight home. It would get me back just before the lock down started. I was exhausted.

We’ve now been confined for a month. I’m ready to start travelling again. The seeds for future trips in the van are starting to germinate. The prospect of work trips in the autumn no longer seems out of the question. In quiet moments, confined at home, my mind takes flight and remembers the delights of past trips.

I’m ready to start blogging again. It will be a little different. Remembrance of trips past, plans for what’s to come, reflections on confinement in a small French village and, of course, art and culture and maybe the odd recipe.

Stay safe, stay healthy and for the moment stay at home. A bientôt!

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