Reluctantly Returned

After two glorious weeks, we left France, reluctantly, to return home. Neither of us were ready to leave, and felt that spending one more week would have been ideal, but had neither the funds nor the fortune to do so. I started coming down with a cold two days before we were due to leave, in large part because I had pushed myself too hard those last two days and was exhausted. It’s now settled into a mild infection, but I have started antibiotics, and will get my infusions tomorrow and Tuesday, so everything should sort itself out over the next several days.

My body still hasn’t adjusted to a clock that is 9 hours behind the time in France, which, I’m sure, isn’t helping my immune system’s effort to fight off this cold/infection. Nor is the 30 hours of no sleep that happens when you get on a plane in the afternoon in one time zone, fly for 11 hours, yet get off the plane just 2 hours later in the new time zone. But this, too, should resolve itself within a few more days. And I knew that I would have to spend the first week back resting.

I do have lots of pictures to share, though editing them will take a good bit of time. The glare on the screen of the camera was often so severe that I was essentially shooting blind, and thus sometimes took half a dozen or more pictures of the same thing, making small adjustments with each frame, hoping that at least one would come out well. I now have to go through and find the “keepers.” As I do that, I may sometimes simply post a picture with a caption or an explanation, saving my thoughts for another time.

In the meantime, I need to get my infusions, lots of rest, and hope that it doesn’t take my body too much longer to figure out day and night in this time zone of home.