This photo of Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, was featured in my blog post, just before I started walking you through my photobook through my posts, back in December 2019.
As if I knew that 2020 was going to be somewhat of a different year for all of us, I began sharing the photos I chose to capture in print, reliving my lifetime of travel through them (and adding in a few more along the way).
Who knew that our amazing Greek Islands trip last year would be a swansong in the freedom of world leisure travel while we all waited for the world pandemic to subside?
Even flitting up to the Loire Valley for our hot air balloon ride last year, and to visit to Chateau de Chambord from our base in central France is something that is still not possible in these days of COVID-19 restrictions.
Marooned in Australia earlier this year, having to cancel our grand plans to drive around the UK, we didn’t know when we would ever get back to Europe to see our beloved Argenton-sur-Creuse again.
But life has a funny way of working out, even in the worst of situations, and we gained permission from the Australian government to temporarily relocate to France for a minimum of 3 months to attend to maintenance on our house.
Ironically, we departed Melbourne, Australia, on the very day their lockdown restrictions were lifted, and arrived in Paris the day before France’s second confinement began.
But we’re not complaining. Not at all. We had each other, and plenty of jobs to do at home. The 1 hour limit per day to walk a 1km radius from our house still afforded us an abundance of scenery; and when that was eased to 20km and 3 hours we felt like we were under no restrictions at all.
And now that confinement restrictions have been lifted in France for the Christmas season (save for a nightly curfew, with cultural venues still closed and bars and restaurants remaining takeaway only), we can toy with the idea of travelling further afield…
We count ourselves very lucky.
A house in France 