Society is dead, long live conviviality

Tonight I will be late for my first drinking-with-someone-on-FaceTime-date which I know because even though it seems like everything is different, some things will never change. Other things are not so the same.

Tonight I will be late for my first drinking-with-someone-on-FaceTime-date which I know because even though it seems like everything is different, some things will never change. My Instagram feed is as chock-a-block as ever with change-the-world-or-go-home wines and Facebook remains the preferred medium for cats.

Meanwhile in France, our foreign licence plate continues to elicit death stares even though we’ve lived in the same village for two years, trains continue not to run and apéro — even if all I’ve done today is watch the cat catch flies — is thankfully still at five.

Other things are not so the same. We're required to fill out a form to go out, but print our stamps at home ever since the post offices closed: an immeasurable technical advance for a public service in France, most of which have yet to accept the existence of the internet. People are slowly getting used to not kissing as they greet, but haven’t quite worked out what to do instead so there’s much shuffling of feet.

On …