Continuing from last year, I decided on a second entry in the middle of the pandemic — and applying what I had learned, and studying the situation thoroughly, I decided this time to spend the quarantine period in France!
I arrived safely in France in beautiful morning mist.
This time, having desperately saved up credit card points, I decided to spend the week’s quarantine at a Marriott hotel. After landing I waited for the hotel’s pickup bus.
The morning sun healed a body worn out from the long journey.
Thanks to those points, a week’s stay at a bargain price — almost free! I am grateful for that.
Under the French quarantine rules this time, you were free to move around inside the hotel and the immediate area (though not allowed into shops), so I went to the hotel gym every day to keep my fitness up for the event.
Prices in France are high, so to save money I drank the protein powder I had brought from Japan for two meals a day and ate the hotel’s free breakfast for the third — and thanks to that quarantine diet I actually felt lighter and healthier. Water cost over ¥300, a small bottle of wine ¥700, and ice cream ¥500 — all expensive.
That one enjoyable meal a day, breakfast, was genuinely lavish.
It was a buffet, though because of Covid the staff served it out for you — and the salad, above everything, was truly delicious.
France means bread, and this too was good enough that I rather overate it.
And so the week of quarantine in France passed with, honestly, no stress at all.
Now then — from here, at last, into Italy. Continued …