Bonjour de la France. It moves me to be able to type those words. We had planned to visit France as a family in 2020, but 2020 dashed a lot of plans and taught us to appreciate what matters, didn’t it? I shifted course and decided to begin a medical assistant program this summer since I did not foresee that we would be able to go abroad. And yet in early June 2021, despite only recently easing some rigid lockdowns, the government of France announced that American visitors would be allowed in again. After discussing this with my husband, we decided that returning to France was a priority. I don’t know if I will re-enroll in the medical assistant program next year, but I do know that this timing is right. So here we are, having arrived this week, grateful and amazed that amid this global context we have been allowed to come.

One year into the Coronavirus lockdowns here in Oregon, I caught the Coronavirus myself. This month, March 2021, is an interesting time to have had Covid-19 since our state is at one of its lowest rates of infection and some businesses are starting to relax their regulations. I suspect I caught the Coronavirus at the grocery store since I hardly go anywhere else and I spent over an hour there amidst many shoppers on a Saturday afternoon five days before I got a fever. (For the curious, I was wearing a mask as required, but that probably isn’t the panacea that we’d like to think it is when we consider that mask mandates have not kept developed countries from high rates of infection.)

Visiting France as a Family in 2021: Le Début

5 Aspects of Covid-19 I Didn't Know Until I Experienced it Myself