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....)

Oh no French, I hope you and DD1 don't suffer too badly. Can you isolate yourselves from the rest of your family? Take care of yourselves

We're not isolating from the rest of the family. We've all Benn together for 2.5 weeks anyway so seems a bit pointless. I'm pretty sure we caught it from Dd2 anyway. She had a confirmed case in her class just as her prepa was closed and she came home. None of us are going anywhere. The only one not wfh was Dd1 and she's now on arrête.

We're both feeling pretty bad but no worse than a flu (not the same symptoms as flu though).

Hope you recover soon.
I had a Drive supermarket order scheduled this evening. They rang to say they wouldn't be open at the time they'd given me the slot for and I should go and collect it asap. Rushed out, picked up the wrong bit of paper, hit a huge gendarme roadblock - my attestation was yesterday's and said I was going for authorised physical exercise.
The gendarme didn't actually say he'd fined me, but he scanned my ID, muttered something about 'first fine' and then chatted about Scotland.
I didn't like to say, 'Yes, Scotland is lovely, but have you fined me, officer?' in case he hadn't and then promptly did.
If he has, it's 135e and if I slip up again in the next 2 weeks, it's 200e.
I've been really careful, have been nagging DS1 about his when I send him for a walk round the block each day and now I feel a right fool.

Quite a lot of my order was unavailable, notably the milk the DC have been waiting for for a week. And cat food, apples and disinfectant spray.

Fingers crossed for a kind gendarme Auld. Our Drive order today was missing tinned tomatoes, lamb, aubergines and oranges. On the way out the brakes started making a loud noise. The garage was closed and DH stopped off at our organic shop where the problem was fixed by the kind owner, who used to be a mechanic. 😊 He also got a large bag of flour and organic lardons.
It is a strange world at the moment.

It is very strange. I hate not being able to plan things. We've heard rumours from 2 different sources that schools might not be back until September. DH says they're fairly reliable (i.e. people working with the government). I can't allow myself to panic but I can't see how we can do that and carry on working. But that'll be the case for millions of families.

Considering how long it is taking for the numbers to show any stabilisation, I certainly wouldn't be surprised.
Yes it's really difficult that you can't plan anything. Looks like all the travel plans I had for coming months will probably not be happening - just got a cancellation notice for a flight as late as in August..

Additional challenge for me - I work in Switzerland. Borders are closed. They will still allow cross-border workers to cross, but they check everybody, so crossing takes for ever, simply not feasible to spend hours sitting in the car.

I hope your gendarme likes Scotland so much he forgave you...

I ordered two large boxes of cat food from Amazon at the beginning of the lockdown as mine are quite fussy and it was the only thing I was really worried about. It took about 10 days to come but I now have six weeks' worth of cat food.

Re schools - there is planning at the moment for the various "concours" (CAPES and post-bac Concours) to happen in June but given how close that is to the end of the school year, and how disrupted classes are in secondary school once the Bac has started, I can see the Ministère might think there's not much point in having the children back in collèges and lycées so late in the year.

DH and I both work in college / lycée. We’ve heard nothing official but... several colleagues who were very sure that we’d be back in school after the printemps holidays... are suddenly less sure about that, and September is being whispered about.

The thing is, gradually reducing the confinement isn’t possible if schools go back. Lifting some of the restrictions in going out, letting some businesses reopen if they can allow for some measure of distancing: I can see that. But schools opening? That would be huge.

there were some talks about letting young people out of confinement first at today's press conference.

I would happily continue to work from home for weeks if the DC were back at school!!!

I could understand not opening shops, restaurants, sports centres etc. But I suppose the schools were the first things to shut so might be the last to open.

There's a fake letter from Macron and Blanquer circulating on kids' WhatsApp groups saying school will go back over the Summer to catch up. I did try to point out to DD that it appeared on the1st April but they all believe it!

@Iamagree

There's another one I’ve seen that says all college and lycée students will redouble the year... another April fools!

So no end of year Bac exams....

Wow Ive just seen that too. Very early to announce it I think. Doesn't sound for schools going back 4th May...

Getting slightly cabin feverish here. And we have at least another 4 weeks.

Grades during confinement don't count but they will take into account the final report so students have to remain 'assidu'.

Guess that means they think or hope school will resume for a few weeks next term.

So thankful my kids aren't that age.

Yes, although WFH a lot easier when they are in lycée.

Look at the Grand Est numbers here. Only 55 new in hospital and 22 in ICU, we always had 2-3 hundred the previous days.
www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus/carte-et-donnees

They forecast the pic for today, but according to the figures France may have passed it. Fingers crossed....although I'm sure the confinement will go on at least until 4th May to [wisely] prevent people going on holiday.
Here in dept 35 only 17 deaths in total.

I agree they wont stop until the end of school holidays unless they let zone C out first.

Im totally fed up. Yesterday I was supposed to be taking the DC to their grandparents in the UK for the holidays. They adore going there. Instead we're stuck sitting in the sun by an open window....

Just seen that Macron has announced that adults with autism can go out more frequently (still respecting distances etc) which I think is really good - especially given that France is not so good with disabilities.

I think that is a good move from Macron. Globally I think that the government have more or less done alright. I certainly get the impression that they are trying to do the right thing at a time where it isn't always obvious what that is.

Fingers crossed we are getting close to the worst of it. I am a bit worried about the impact of people going away for Easter. We are a big tourism spot and there are already reports of an increase in cars with 75, 78, 92 and 93 plates. 🙁

I saw that tourists were being fined and sent home. And were being fined for each person in the car (not sure about children). Plus if they get stopped a 2nd time in the same journey the fine goes up (as 2nd offense in 15 days). Could get very expensive very quickly!

I don't quite get it. You're outside your department with your car, surely you understand that you will be stopped and fined at the first opportunity. Especially as there are hundreds of extra police out for this exact reason

🤷‍♀️ I know right? We had 70 tourists who were fined for going to the beach yesterday! I mean - everything is closed here, restaurants, shops, beaches... Sure the weather is nice but is it really better to spend time in your holiday apartment and risk hideous fines than to stay at home?