Lockdown was/is (depending on where you live in the world) hard, yes. But at least we had a couch to binge Netflix on! (or to take a nap)

French writer Flaubert was not as lucky. 

He was 28 when he landed in Beirut in 1850. He immediately got confined inside Beirut lazaretto (which we talked about last week).

According to the letter he sent to his cousin Olympe, his lockdown conditions were, for lack of a better word, brutal. No Netflix nor zoom to pass the time, obviously. No chairs, table nor couch. He peed through the windows of the room, which didn’t bear any window panes.

The whole experience  did not deter him from keeping his sense of humour : he tells his cousin about how he threatened his wardens to kiss them, even though they never got very close to him.

And it did not deter him either from admiring the beauty of our country. He says about the view that it’s “one of the most beautiful in the world”.  After all, the location of the lazaretto allowed him to see the sea and the snowy mountains at the same time. You know, the Lebanese dreamy landscape celebrated by many…

Anyway Flaubert was on a journey in the Middle East when he arrived to Beirut. He was coming from Alexandria, via Malta, where 2 cases of cholera had been declared (though some other sources say that he got confined because of the plague in Egypt). Which is why he got to experience the confinement in Beirut, and write about it! Lucky us 🙂

Now to be totally honest with you, Flaubert ended up staying confined for 4 days only, and not weeks, like we did. Which, we have to admit, makes a huge difference. 

Sources
Dima de Clerck, historian
France Culture, TV5Monde
https://www.cairn.info/revue-les-cahiers-de-l-orient-2008-2-page-141.htm#