les Davey de France

 This morning early I got a text message from the doctor's surgery to check I was OK post-vaccination. I told them I was fine with almost no noticeable reaction.

 There are LOTS of beggars in Bordeaux, often outside the doors of the Catholic Churches, but also outside the supermarkets. Yesterday I scuttled to the local U supermarket in the morning. I generally say hallo to the beggars but I never have any money on me.  Then one day I saw a young man say to a beggar that he had no money but could he buy something for them. What a good idea, I thought. So I tried it with the lady outside our local supermarket. "Yes please, a chicken." she said in her broken French. "A CHICKEN ?" She pointed to the pictures of bread on the door. "You mean a chicken sandwich?" "No, I have that at the house but I'd like a chicken." I ought to explain that she was sat on the floor in the sun on a rather hot day and it was only about 10 am. I wouldn't want to sit there all day with a dead chicken, then take it home and eat it. "A cooked chicken?" In the bigger supermarkets you can get delicious rotisserie chi...

 So my appointment to be vaccinated was for 17:48. In our local surgery there are two doctors and both were taking rendezvous, 8 minutes apart. I thought it highly unlikely that they could really vaccinate people in 8 minutes, all the admin included, so I didn't bust a gut to arrive on time. I was about 2 minutes late. At the door the two eager young doctors were hovering. The one has a man-bun, the other shaves his head. I often wonder what would happen is you could average them. Anyway, I digress. The one with the man-bun checked my name off his list and then took my Carte Vitale.  "We'll do the necessary, you'll have a short wait, the nurse will do the jab, then you'll need to wait here a while before going home." "I thought you'd never be able to do a patient every eight minutes!" "We're doing them every four." They'd combined their list and created a kind of vaccination-line. So while they did the necessary I sat in the lit...

 There is now a Facebook group for people who live in our apartment complex - the Neighbours of the Gardens of the Ars - and it's a great way of keeping abreast of the various changes and so on. The other day someone posted that they had found a smear of tobacco on the doorhandles of their front door, so they had looked on all the corridors to see if this was chance or design. Sore enough, a few other doors also had smears of tobacco. Maybe a signal left by burglars casing the joint? About a day later they came home to find that someone had attempted to drill through the lock but had been interrupted so had not gained entry to the flat. This morning at about 8:30 am there was some noise in the corridor outside. There are just three doors on our corridor. I popped my head out to look. The corridor was full of furniture and two young guys were busily getting it all to the lift. "Ah, it's a house move?" (We almost never see the guy who lives in that flat) "Yes, sorr...

 So, I thought, my official letter saying in big blue letters "VACCINEZ-VOUS" suggests I look for an appointment either with my doctor or another doctor to get the jab. I wonder what would happen if I looked on the doctolib website. Doctolib is a website that enables you to find medical services and to book appointments. Under it's "Vaccination" tab there were various vaccination centres and doctors listed, but none had appointments to propose.  Strong demand means there's no dates available, but come back later as more dates will come online. I went back at bedtime and saw that the nearest doctors' surgery had appointments for next Monday, and that a clinic in a part of town I didn't know could do Saturday morning. I looked at how to get to the clinic, but by the time I'd found a route those appointments had gone. So I booked myself in with the doctor down the road. Then today my doctor phoned.  We can do you next Wednesday.  I'm sorted.  Jo...

 The Grand Theatre (somehow "The Big Theatre" just doesn't sound classy in English, does it) has just been evacuated by the forces of order. "What?" you cry, and "Why?" Well the most obvious effects of covid in France are on the cafés, restaurants and on the world of culture. Museums, cinemas, theatres, all have been closed now for something like a year ! So last week a group of show people decided to take matters into their own hands and occupy the Grand Theatre. Until today, when they were removed by the police. They're now stood all over the tram rails discussing their next move, apparently.

 So. Covid. When I last saw my doctor we arranged a date for vaccination. It's tomorrow at 13:20. Then this morning a letter arrived from the health authorities telling me to get vaccinated. I thought "That's well-timed". Until I just got a phone call telling me that vaccination is off. The doctor has no vaccine. Oh well.