Lascours Lockdown, Day 404

Thursday, April 22nd. 

Today is Marie-Elisabeth's brother Alain's 70th birthday. The girls decided they wanted to bake cakes for him. I convinced them to make them in baking cups so there would be individual portions. Laureva made peppermint fondant au chocolat (Jenny brought us back peppermint extract from Scotland, along with Scottish breakfast tea, rhubarb cookies and baking powder) and Maeva made lemon cake. Supervising that project took up half the morning. At 11, I left the girls getting started on cupcake decoration and drove up to the university to pick up exams to grade from the printing service. I was gone about an hour and a half in all and was expecting to come home to a complete disaster in the kitchen. However, when I walked in the door, the cupcakes were all decorated and neatly arranged on trays, the sprinkles were put away in their boxes, the dirty dishes were in the sink and the counters were all wiped clean. I thought Sylvain must have done the cleaning up, but he said he hadn't, so I congratulated the girls on doing such a good job of cleaning up after themselves.

At 3:30, we headed down to the Reys' with Marie-Elisabeth. The birthday celebration was outside on the patio. In addition to Caroline and Vincent, Ghalem was also there. Ghalem and the older generation have all had first doses of vaccine and Caroline recently tested negative after a work trip. However, I kept my mask on except for eating one piece of cake and drinking, and required the girls do the same. Maëva gave Caroline a potholder she made as an early birthday present. She wrapped it herself and curled the ribbon. We stayed until 6:45, when it was time to leave to get home before curfew.

As of today, 20% of the population has received first doses of vaccine, 7.5% is fully vaccinated. After a review of American cases of blood clots, the EMA has declared the Johnson & Johnson vaccine safe for use in Europe. Blood clots will be listed as a rare side effect, as they have also been for the Astra Zeneca vaccine. 

The Prime Minister held a press conference this evening and made a few announcements. Starting Monday, when schools reopen, classes will be closed when just one case of coronavirus is detected in a student or teacher. Partial reopening of businesses is planned to start mid-May, however, there is currently no end in sight for the 7pm curfew. The government says the peak of the third wave is behind us. However, two weeks after the peak 7-day-average high of 41,000 on April 6th, we're only down to an average of 32,000. They may be right about the peak, yet infection rates still remain way too high for my taste.