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....)

Am I insane or isn't this very similar to how it already is in the UK? I'm in Wales, we are only allowed out to exercise once, and it has to be in proximity to our home (so we walk - me, DH, DS1 on bike or scooter and DS2 in pushchair). The only possible difference I guess is possibly we will have to divide, one parent taking one DC out each at different times? It's not a necessity for DC2 in the pushchair, it's only DS1 who needs the exercise.

Sorry I've now read further into the thread where it says cycling isn't allowed. So DS1 will have to be on foot, not ideal. I don't understand why cycling is seen as more risky than walking...

Hi tempchange. France started lockdown 1 week before the UK including needed to carry ID and a form stating why we are out.

Hi everyone. Still quiet in Paris. No problem.getting Easter chocolatenthough the choice was tiny (as all supermarkets near me are small).

I honestly don't think they could start deconfinement at the beginning of June if the numbers keep falling. 200 fewer deaths in the past 24 hours in hospitals reported on Saturday compared to Friday. 350 odd I think. Plus fewer people admitted to hospital.

If that continues then no way will people accept lockdown for another 7 (?!) Weeks

@tempnamechange98765
We have been in lockdown since a week before the UK.

We are allowed out once a day only (you can't go shopping and go out for exercise). You are allowed out for maximum one hour and within 1km of your house. Some areas have put further restrictions on which hours of the day you can go out for exercise. All parks are closed.

You have to go out with a signed and dated form.

Children can cycle

Cycling has been forbidden from the start of confinement in France. Very frustrating, I love my 50km cycle rides in the Brittany countryside, always alone so no danger but I respect the law and so does everyone else it seems - I haven't seen any cyclists at all.

@CroissantsAtDawn
I think another 7 weeks would be very hard but I have trouble understanding why the university would have gone to the bother of having something legally approved if they weren't going to need it.

I suppose my other worry is that if there is a regional lifting of the lockdown then we are going to be the last place as we have virtually no cases still.

I’d have thought it would be the other way round surely? Hardest hit places last?

We have no immunity though so we are likely to see an explosion of cases.

They have to open Ile de France despite it having a lot of cases as it'll reboost the economy fastest.

My work is planning on keeping people WFH for up to 3 months after deconfinement, depending on your role.

Roseau18 you can't go shopping? How can you buy food then???

To be honest so many people are breaking it in the UK, it wouldn't be a bad thing to be a bit stricter. I am going out for a walk every day with my family as mentioned but for max 1 hour and only around where we live, staying away from others. We've just started going out earlier as it was getting busy at the time we were going. We get an online delivery once a week and DH then goes to our local supermarket (walking distance but 2 mins in the car) to get the supplies that are inevitably unavailable online! That's it. We stay home otherwise.

A couple of facs have officially announced they are closing until September, one in corsica and the other might be Nantes from memory.

She means you can’t go shopping and do exercise in the same day

Ours is still talking about a resit session - legally this has to be 3 weeks after the results of the 1st session, so that would make it the last week of June (although I think that would be cutting it fine to have everything wrapped up by July 14th).

I live completely by myself and am starting to find the lack of actual human contact hard.

My work has already said that we should not plan any work travel until August. We had several cases in the office, so I expect that there will also be home work when possible for a while still.

Our teaching year finishes at the end of next week so I clearly won't be teaching anymore before September but it's the whole exam session (and preparation for next year) which is unclear.

Actually I think it is the uncertitude that I am have trouble dealing with. I could cope with the lockdown being renewed every two weeks but the government saying on Wednesday that it wouldn't be lifted on the 15th but that they were not going to say anything more until Monday has made me fear that they are going to announce something awful.

I also wonder what will happen if Germany and Switzerland decide to go back in business but leave the border checks in place. So many people in Alsace work across the border, it would take hours to cross if they will keep checking everybody's papers.

We had loads of cases in our offices. But as there's 5000 of us its to be expected!

I think with the Facs and Bac etc they had to announce early about cancellations because of the uncertainty. They couldn't know if students would be back 2, 4, 6 weeks before exams etc.

But I do find the figures encouraging. They also need to balance it with the economy. And they managed to produce a lot of hoapitals beds so capacity has increased and if I understand correctly they are not at full occupation of reanimation beds in Ile de France even

This has been a really weird year because we had the strikes and the students blocking the university in the 1st semester and the beginning of the 2nd semester and now this.

The incertainty is a killer. DH's business supplies canteens (school and work) and restaurants. He can't judt sot back and say oh well this'll go on for weeks. They need to be ready. But for when???!!!

I hate not being able to plan. I hate not knowing how deconfinement will happen and what will be allowed when.

Ive always been a planner and it's hard not having that.

I thought that on Monday they were going to announce that confinement will continue until they say otherwise...ie not giving 2 weeks each time.

Yes, Nantes has said it won't open till Sept.

One of our Erasmus partner universities in Ireland has said they are not sure exchanges in semester 1 of next year will be feasible, which seems common sense. We've been playing along with the idea that they might go ahead, doing selection and nominations, but travel will be restricted and expensive for a long time to come, IMO. Several students have already pulled out, saying the financial effects of lockdown on their families mean they won't be able to go.

We are waiting for word from the head of our uni, but I think there is no chance we will have exams before Sept in my UFR, even if lockdown ends in June. There is a difference between allowing people to go out more than now and letting 300 of them queue up and sit exams side by side and expecting staff to invigilate, walk between the rows of candidates, handle hundreds of papers, etc.

Anyway, in this region, postponing exams even by two weeks means likely issues due to heat: last year, we had to move all the exams to the morning in late June, after a week in which students were passing out in the gym hall with temps of 34° outside and the sun beating down on the roof, no air con, etc.

Also, our campus has no soap, no hand driers, no paper towels and is not cleaned often enough. I know the Dean's team are concerned a lot of staff will refuse to go back immediatley after lockdown is lifted if they think they are not being protected. Droit de retrait will be cited.

That's what I think they're going to say as well but I think 2 weeks gives you something to hold onto, even if you are almost certain it is going to be extended whereas an indefinite confinement doesn't seem to offer any hope (or at least that's how I feel about it).

True. Im holding out for the 4th May. Cos I can't get my head around it being longer right now. Plus its my DC's birthday in May as well as 1st communion for the other DC plus a very special weekend away planned for ascension....I don't want to give up hope for May just yet! It would depress me too much.

I honestly thought it would be 4th May - that was when schools here should have gone back and without being totally clear, the university was sending very strong hints that staff would be allowed back in again at the beginning of May (as I say teaching has finished and they cancelled the late April/early May exam sesssion) so numbers would have been minimal. But Friday we suddenly started getting emails recommending that meetings planned for May should be held by video-conférence and the final straw was the one about the jurys d'examen at the beginning of June possibly needing to be done "à distance". I can't bear the thought of not speaking to anyone in person for another 7 weeks.