Lockdown conditions in France

[CroissantsAtDawn]

Ive seen lots of threads with people worrying about lockdown.and how they would cope/ it would be enforced.

Last night, following the President's announcement I received a text message from the government confirming the lockdown for 15 days and linking to a site with details.

From 12 today we are only allowed out to go to work if work from home isnt possible, buy groceries, see a doctor, help elderly/vulnerable family in need (with reminder about barrier actions), to let a dog do its business or for individual physical activity close to home.

Each time you need a paper dated and signed explaining why you are out. Infringements are fined 38-135 euros. The paper can be downloaded and printed, shown on your phone or just hand written.

100 000 police and army personnel are being deployed to enforce the conditions.

No mention of how children can exercise. Just that parks etc are closed and there should be no family or friends gathering.

We are going to test going out early for run with 1 DC each and hope that is allowed in "individual activity". If its not I ll stand on the doorstep and watch them run up and down the road (2 highly active boys living in a flat....)

Thank you for posting that. Interesting - and somewhat terrifying - to see the ‘rules’ and how it might play out if the uk adopts the same procedure. It all seems so surreal. I wonder how long this might really go on for, longer than we thing I’d imagine.

We are fortunate in that we have a big house and garden, but there are now 5 of us all trying to work/study from home. I really ought to do some exercise. I'm pretty sure I'm going to put on a tonne of weight. Dd3 has decided that home economics should be on her curriculum in college so is baking cakes and cookies everyday.

french
how is school dealing with it?
where I am, schools are closed and distance learning will be set up. but that will take a few days.
teachers are working - from home.

Sounds very much like us in Italy. We don't have a garden either but do have a small strip of cement in front of the garages which counts as our property so my boys have been playing football there or in the flat. We are not allowed out for a run. I'm going to start properly exercising indoors today.

I'm in Spain, this is day 5 since the schools as hit, day 2 of proper not-leaving-the-house lockdown.

Yesterday I walked to DS school to pick up his learning pack (he is 6) and the small neighbourhood supermarket was operating a 1 in 1 out system with a queue outside with people 2m apart.

I bought my fruit and veg from the local frutería who was barricading the door with a shelves and going to get whatever you asked him for, like a market stall. He was really jolly and upbeat behind his face mask.

I uploaded a video class to google classroom for the school I teach at.

Dh worked in the bedroom on his laptop while I did homeschool with the kids.

We had a long siesta! We never usually do.

We planted sunflowers on our balcony. We're keeping picture diaries. If this is tomorrow's history it'll be nice for the kids to have a physical memory of it.

At 8pm, the whole city seemed to be out on their balconies playing the celebratory anthem we normally play during fiesta time, followed by a minute of applause for the health workers of the city. This seems to be a nightly event - I don't know how long it'll be kept up for but I love it.

We stayed in for the last three weekends potty training DS2. Wish we had waited - now wouldnve been the perfect time!

I'm worried about money as I won't be paid for this time. Dh will but his salary just about covers the mortgage.

I'm stuck in Morocco until they can fly us out in next few days. Hotel have put us on lockdown as they have the whole country.

Not sure if the French will take to singing at their balconies.

My DC have taken it really badly especially the 8 year old who had a pyjama party planned at ours this weekend and for whom the closure of parks is a disaster.

The teachers are setting work each day to be done. How we are going to juggle that and full time work (from home) plus the extra cooking and cleaning is quite worrying. Will be looking up exercise videos to do too.

Unfortunately both my boys are incredibly sporty and sociable. They hate coloring in/craft etc. And the eldest only likes reading in bed at night. He has a block on any other time. He also detests schoolwork so I think we will have several daily battles on our hands.

Salary wise the government has announced extremely generous payments if you can't work. If it goes on longer than 2 weeks and we're tearing our hair out we'll look at seeing if I can stop work at least for a bit with the government support.

The other side to anticipate is the emotional fall out. My 5 year old never normally cries but did loads yesterday (first day of no school) for the slightest reason. The 8 year old is often grumpy anyway but is happy as larry outside....

@woodencoffeetable there is an online system and in theory work is being set there, in practice the system can't cope with millions of pupils logging in at the same time so it has been down all morning. I'm trying to do my work at the same time as sorting the computer problems and setting other work to do instead (with the usual teenage back chat). I can completely understand any parents that just give up and let the DCs play video games for the next month.

Ugh Ive really struggled with my work plus DCs schoolwork today. The 8 year old has been set roughly 4 hours worth of solid work. He got about 2/3 done and it was painful. I only had a few times in the day when I wasnt in a meeting, or doing urgent work, or cooking, clearing up etc. and funnily enough he just didn't want to work at those times!

We re using EcoleDirect which was down yesterday but working fine today.

Will be out jogging with them again early tomorrow. Have been having a disagreement with DH about what distance from the flat we can jog to.

That sounds really tough especially to suddenly have to home educate for 4 hours a day when you are not used to it and still working. We home educate (I don't work so not the same situation at all) I'm sure you will all settle into a routine soon.

Croissants at dawn, I have been wondering both how far from my house I can go and how long for. What are you and your husband's opinions?

I think we need to stay within 1-2km ish. DH usually does a 40-45 minute round trip but says he's never more than 4km from the flat. But tomorrow he's running and taking the 5 year old with him on his bike so Im a bit nervous.

I usually do a daily 50 minute circular walk so I would guess about 4 km but because it is a loop only 2km maximum from my house. Do you think that counts as "brief exercise" or is it too long?

My DCs school doesn't seem too organized at the moment not too much work is being sent out. My DS2 spent a lot of time playing Destiny on the computer and shooting basket ball hoops in the garden. DS1 is in charge of dog walking and he reckons he's 2km maximum from the house. But we are extremely rural and he walks on forest paths.

My work is closed now although we are offering childcare for essential workers. I'm being paid 90% of my salary. When it's school holidays and I don't have to supervise my DCs and school work I'll take my turn. At the moment it's just my child free colleagues who have been called upon but I feel it's only fair to take my turn.

My employer anticipates school will be closed for 3 months.

I bought decorating materials before the lockdown so am currently engaged in cleaning the house from top to bottom and then decorating. Maybe a bit of gardening for good measure.

I'm so glad we live in such a rural area at this time, I don't think it would be quite so easy in an apartment in town.

3 months!!! I'll go loopy! (Stuck in an appartment...)

DH will do his run this morning and I'll let you know if he's fined .

I'll be doing a short 20 minute jog cos I absolutely detest running. My hobby is swimming and that is obviously not possible

We have DIY that needs doing but no material. If we are stuck here that long then the only thing we can do is a deep clean (DH has already said he's planning on cleaning windows this weekend!)

We live deep in the Normandy countryside in an area popular with cyclists and walkers. We are walking within the boundaries of the commune, but there were a few cyclists coming through yesterday. Will be interesting to see if we get more.
We are well stocked with food for a week, but will need some stuff next week. Does anyone know if supermarkets generally have a policy about letting a few in at a time or is it still a free for all?
I wish we had internet shopping.

Im in Paris so its very different. For the moment i think each shop has its own policy although for smaller shops like bakeries and greengrocers I saw the police on the news last night yelling one customer at a time.

We've got plenty of food so won't be trying shops until friday or Saturday at the earliest.

DH works in food distribution and says there are no food production problems at all. They are all ramping up their production and hiring new people!

We have internet shopping but gave up last Sunday cos nothing was available.

We could do with some fruit and veg at the weekend, but will see how things work out. There is talk of the shops in the nearest town (7km) doing deliveries to the village as well.
I am trying to learn to be relaxed and take each day at a time, but it isn't easy is it?

No its not. My stomach ulcer is playing up!

DS1 and I ran past 4 policemen and weren't stopped though they were stopping every car.

Came home past 3 supermarkets and they are all open 8-8 and have signs saying no supply problems but will limit number of people in the store at one time. 8am and there was no one there!!!!

But as its Paris people only buy what they can carry anyway - no one shops by car

Our nearest supermarket is 14km!

I guess we are going the same way - we seem to have nicked something about the wording of some (individual/outdoor) exercise remaining permissible

Thankyou for starting this thread, Im in the UK so hearing the daily goings of another place has been very reassuring :)

I certainly feel better for knowing what we can and can't do. I suspect people in France react better to having to carry a self-declaration form as we are are so used to paperwork. It will be interesting to see if they try it in the UK.