This is a quick response to the people who’ve written to say that Susan and I should be leaving France because Putin has invaded Ukraine. I’ll start with my canned response:
Right now we’re in the same place as we were at the start of the Syrian conflict, or the Iraq invasion, or the Afghanistan war: ordinary people are getting all of their information from entirely unreliable sources. Both the Russian and American governments have long histories of disinformation, so you should sit tight until some reliable outside sources can verify whatever claims are being made.
Ukraine is a really big country, and is also a very long way from France.
Putin and his troops would need to work their way through Poland and Germany, or the smaller nations to the south, before they would reach France.
Which was reassuring until I plugged Kiev and Thézac into Google maps and asked for directions.
Basically, a day and a bit if you can drive non-stop.
So, right now I’m staying in Thézac and mostly ignoring the news. When the reality of the situation has settled out in a few days I’ll reassess the whole mess and work from there.
(Susan is actually on a plane to Nova Scotia as we speak - that’s 4,986 km) (On Air Canada, who just prior to take-off announced that there was a problem with the toilets and they wouldn’t work below 60,000 feet!)
Am I worried? Mostly no. Am I conscious that every single church in France has a wall that lists the names of young men who were killed during the first and second World Wars, and that those deaths happened after France had been invaded? Absolutely.