The picture at the top of this blog entry may not look like much to you, but to all of us it is a breakthrough. Yesterday 2 June restaurants and bars opened throughout much of France, including on our island of Oléron. So there are four of us - our Parisian friends Colette and Paul
de Backer, my wife Roslyn and your humble scribe - looking well pleased with ourselves after eating and drinking well at a local restaurant La Guitoune ("The Tent"). Roslyn and I calculated this morning that it's our first meal in a restaurant since Busselton in Western Australia on 12 March, twelve weeks and 9,000 miles ago.
The movie below shows the scene at the restaurant as our friends arrived. First in the picture is Bertrand Leux, a jazz drummer of some distinction. Next, in red, is his wife Francine. After that come Paul and a dancing Colette. Life returns to the planet!