A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 21 – Counting Down to Christmas Day

 December 23, 2020

The UK announced that they have cases of a new strain of CoVid-19. My heart goes out to the beleaguered nation and to their government and health officials trying to navigate this difficult situation. My host nation, France, has just closed its borders (les frontiers) to all UK vehicles and visitors.

Sitting here in Paris, this news is stressful for two reasons. The first, of course, is that all of us around the world are concerned about the impact of this new strain.  The second, more personal, reason for my stress: the Marks & Spencer (a UK-based grocery store) down the street is now cut off from its UK-located supplies!  I depend on Marks & Spencer for quite a few of my favorite things like sharp cheddar cheese, sour cream, Scottish butter cookies, bacon…. the list goes on.

I love living in France which is justifiably famous for its delicious food. However, I do miss some of the food items that are easily found in the US (like sour cream and cheddar cheese) but are not easily found here in France. Happily, UK-based Marks & Spencer usually fills in the gaps. Unless the borders close.  I quickly walked over to M&S this morning after breakfast and did a little stock-up on (my) essentials.

 The early morning shopping trip then inspired another quick declutter of the refrigerator and freezer so there was space for the incoming stockpile. Since I was decluttering anyway, I did a very quick run through of the bottom shelf in my “pantry” area.  Wow, in under an hour, I tidied up the interior of the refrigerator, freezer, and the bottom shelf of my dish cabinet. It’s amazing what can be done when one is on a CoVid-stress roll!

After my cleaning-fit, I followed Fiona’s advice from A Chic & Simple Christmas to take time to enjoy the season. I met up with several friends for an in-person afternoon tea break. It was so nice to relax in a lovely living room and hang out and chat about anything funny and happy.  A little light-hearted socializing helped all of us relax and enjoy the spirit of the holiday season.