A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 22 – What Do We Choose?

 November 24, 2020

Fiona Ferris talks about “self-talk” in Day 22 of her book, 30 Chic Days At Home. She specifically highlights how we talk about our current CoVid-19 situation. If we are in a national lockdown, do we call it being “stuck at home?” or do we call it “privileged to be safe?” Fiona reminds us that how we describe our situation is how we will experience it – for good or ill.

Confession time: a LOT of the time I call France’s lockdowns “stuck inside.” But Fiona is right – I choose how I experience this situation by the words I use to name it and describe it. I am perfectly able to choose to experience it as frustrating and confining OR I can choose to experience it as a safe and lovely break in a usually too-busy life. It’s totally up to me.

France’s previous national lockdown was much more unnerving than this one with armed police and uniformed military all over the city, being stopped and asked for your “papers,” the eery emptiness of the streets, the many closed, dark shop windows …. and it all happened with 16 hours notice.  This lockdown is still a big deal but it’s not as frightening. There are nowhere near the number of police – at least in my neighborhood – and there are a few more shops open in addition to grocery stores, pharmacies, and specialty stores like boulangeries/patisseries, cheese, chocolate, and wine stores. (It’s France –  no one expects you to survive a pandemic without fresh bread, good quality chocolate and a nice bottle of wine.)

I am calling this lockdown my “Keto/nut-free/dairy-free cooking challenge.” So far, I have come up with a tasty dark chocolate, dairy-free Keto creme brulee AND a terrific nut-free, dairy-free Keto holiday spice cookie. Before those two little gems, I found a way to make a Keto, dairy-free, nut-free mug bread that is terrific as the delivery vehicle for a grilled ham & (goat)- cheese sandwich. And my Keto, gluten-free French Onion Soup turned out to be surprisingly tasty as well.  (I will be honest, there have been some stunning disasters, too. ) With the happy support of my fine friends at Amazon.fr, this lockdown has been more of an opportunity for creativity than a “stuck at home” experience.

Fiona’s point is a good reminder – we have a lot more power over our emotions and how we experience our lives than we might otherwise recognize.