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....)

but yes working from home with small children is ..interesting

Ours are 9 and 12. It’s vastly easier than smaller children: the hair on the back of my neck goes up to think what it’s like with babies and toddlers, or more than 2. For us, the school work is getting more organised as we get used to how the teachers (11 of the in our 5emes case) are organising themselves. It was ok today, I felt like we all had our tasks and just got on with them. From 2:30 pm it’s a free for all though - we are being very lenient on gaming as they both connect with friends and chat / shout / play animatedly during Fortnite battles!

DH teaches In lycée... nothing has been decided yet AFAIK but his colleagues reckon is more down to the fact that it’s too early in the year to tell the terminale that it’s game over for their studies, that it’s the bac blanc mark etc that will count. OIB is still up in the air. But that’s all speculation!

Hilarious, thanks for that!

Im in a whatsapp group of 8 mums from CE2 and we are all going slightly crazy from the homework. I'm lucky I've only got 2 kids. A couple of them have 4 and are trying to work as well!

But we've all agreed that me trying to teach my 5 year old how to juggle for motricité is not priority number 1. And we've all given up trying to get the CE2s (all boys) to learn the dance routine and Fly me to the moon for the spectacle in June...

A late joiner here from Indre et Loire. Very rural to the point this all seems surreal, particularly filling in a form to walk my dog across fields.

Excellent group on Facebook called Cooking in France. It's about the only one where people aren't being snappy and aggressive towards each other .

I live alone so the current situation is pretty much standard for me, but DD2 arrived for a holiday on the morning of the lockdown so I have company and a huge pile of empty bottles! Her company has closed but she's clamouring to go home. I'd have to drive an hour to the station then she'd have to cross Paris which seems like a spectacularly bad idea so I'm being very uncooperative.

There are worse places to be in lockdown. No food shortages although not a huge amount of choice as our only supermarket is small and I understand I'm not allowed to drive to the next one, another twenty minutes away. Are fish counters closed everywhere?

I don't know about fish counters, but there was an item on the local news of the fishermen in Port en Bessin who were terribly upset because they could not sell their catch. Seems a terrible waste, but I suppose the logistics are difficult.
We have some left in the freezer, but not much.

Nomad the fish counter in my local Super U is shut too. Apparently the fishermen have the right to work but aren't selling any fish. I know in my Super U the charcuterie counter is also very empty. Talking to the staff they have said they are really bored most of the day, there aren't enough customers to sell fresh food to so they have reduced the range to reduce the loss. It is the same in the boulangerie. Looking at the empty flour shelves I think a lot of people are making their own bread and pastries now.

Depends on where you live but i think in Paris a lot of bakeries rely on the worker/tourist lunch crowd. Traditionally the French like their 2 hot meals a day so when able to stay at home and cook they won't be eating sandwiches at lunchtime.

Going to the bakery for breakfast is more traditional but I'm guessing many think it's not worth the risk.

Our boulangerie now only opens in the morning until 2. I think they've seen a big drop off in their lunch trade (they do a lot of sandwiches, quiches, pizzas etc.. for all the local office workers and are/were very popular so I think they are looking to reduce costs. Still seems to be plenty of bread etc available though. About to pop out and stock up on baguettes for the freezer (well as soon as I've written out my attestation! 🙄) so will see.

DH is out for the weekly Big Shop so fingers crossed we find what we need. Our hyper market fish counter was open last week but was looking very depleted. I suspect that a lot of the fishermen around here are no longer going out, especially as there is no restaurant market anymore...

Spoke to the lady in the boulangerie this morning - they are scaling down the variety of what they sell as they have seen a significant drop in business.

So they are only doing croissants and pain au chocolat during the week and the full range at weekends only. They're also not doing as many specialty breads.

Our local food shops (bakers, butchers) are open till 12:30.

They were already struggling against competition from the ZAC and our town centre was slowly dying. This is likely to make things worse..

My local boulangeries also have reduced hours now and are both opening later and shutting earlier (9.00-13.00). The closest one is not going to be open at all this weekend.

We're carrying on buying from the boulangerie, but I suspect a lot of people are just picking up what they need from the supermarket in their weekly shop to avoid another trip.

I did wonder whether it was reasonable making a special trip out for the boulangerie, but am going less frequently (we are freezing baguettes and then defrosting in the microwave which works remarkably well) and I want them to still be there once this is all over so have decided to continue for now.

Our bakers, grocers, butchers etc have got together and published their contact details through the mayor on Facebook so we can phone in an order and they will deliver. I'm not sure how they are sorting out payment. So far we've only done one shop and are now running down the contents of the freezer.

Notalotta

Mot in UK information here. There's a 6 month reprieve for those due after 30 March.

www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-mots-for-cars-vans-and-motorcycles-due-from-30-march-2020

kersh my freezer is full of wholegrain baguettes. They are good for at least a week in there and as you say easy to defrost. I went to my boulangerie this morning and bought enough for the weekend, it is 5kms away and I think had to queue for half an hour as the boulangère is alone to serve customers now. I don't want to to that more than twice a week!

I think we may end up eggbound. My neighbour can't take her eggs to market so I have said we will take more. Tortilla, omelettes, scramblies, quiche (lardon shortage a problem).... What else?

DDs favourite chocolate cake recipe needs 5 eggs!

Also carbonara with yolks on top, chocolate mousse or meringues with the whites.

Big vegetable gougère.

Soufflé

Veg fritters

Yes carbonara is a good idea. I will make chocolate mousse for Easter but my recipe is just 2 egg yolks and 30g of dark chocolate.

Vegetable gougere sounds interesting...

Eggs are a bit short in Paris sometimes as are lardons.

Lots of pancakes?

DS1s teacher has just told us they're planning on a return to school on May 4th. Another 5 weeks!!!

KatharineRosalie thanks for that, it made me laugh.

I've heard of 4th of May as well. They're saying they expect to see the peak in Grand Est this weekend. Fx.

miss egg salad. Uses tons of eggs.

Crème brûlée freezes well, as do raw egg whites. Îles flottantes? Mayonnaise? Nigella's gateau Breton?

@Duckingell thank you, I have just seen that myself, useful to know!

I've just seen that the "lockdown" has been extended. My parents are at their house in Brittany, we're due to return tomorrow, clearly not going anywhere now , the ferries are all cancelled. They're in their 70s , mum has a variety of health issues (not that you d notice) and are in a pretty isolat3d spot where they are so are finding it very easy to self isolate, unlike at their home in England.

Are people stop able to fly home from France?

4th May is when the last zone would have gone back to school after their Easter holidays. The Minister is aiming for the national "concours" that should have taken place in March to take place at the end of May/beginning of June.

In answer to Nottalotta, the three local aiports closest to me had their last flights to the UK on the 24th March. Ryanair has cancelled all flights until May 1st. Maybe there are still flights from Paris, I don't know but there are now very few trains so if you don't live in Paris it would also be hard to get to Paris.

For the militaire (I have a friend who is Gendarme) it was always the 4th May, but the government couldn't say that straight away they didn't want a panic.