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....)

It must be awful being alone.

Our after school nanny rang me today asking if she could take the boys out, just to walk round the streets. She said she wouldn't come up to the flat and isn't asking for money. She lives with her boyfriend but sounds like she's missing her job. And the days definitely get samey. We're great ones for routine unfortunately- even im holiday we naturally fall into routines - but now Im bored with our lockdown routine!

I work from home several days a week and am quite an introverted person so I didn't think it would bother me that much but I'm finding it hard to have any sort of routine.

I am also worried about my elderly mother and one daughter in the UK who are both vulnerable and for whom I have a made a lot of last minute emergency trips over the past few years.

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

Oh, I hear you on that.

I feel like the creature in the movie "Home": "Can I come into the out now?"

(Shallowly, I also look like He-man's rather unfortunate younger sister, though this is really trivial in the scheme of things...)

Katharinarosolie
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.

Here in Luxembourg +/-200,000 people come across the borders from France, Germany and Belgium every day. Many work in the service industry, but Luxembourg health system relies on cross border workers.

There are those not working due to closure or working from home but the rest can cross the borders with special papers. At the beginning there was talk of huge delays but I think (but don’t know) that it is more relaxed as only a few crazy people will be on the road who don’t need to be.

Luxembourg
My daughter is an English teacher in a Lycee Classic and is due to return to work on Monday 4th May.
There is nothing yet coming from the Ministry of Education but everything considered no one believes that date.

Working remotely is working very well at the moment as all her regular classes have state issued IPads.

However she also teaches two classes of refugees awaiting asylum decisions and that has been very very difficult as access to computers is very limited.

Gfplux yes you can cross the border here as well. Generally it's fine going into Switzerland, just wave the permit. But I have seen some massive queues on the way to France, as they examine all the permission letters and interrogate people about their reasons and timings. And at the moment, most people are working from home, there's practically no traffic. They cannot manage if Switzerland opens up everything, everybody goes back to work and 10 times more people want to cross.

Everyone around here, including myself and DH, work in Geneva and cross the border. My neighbour is a Douane! There's a queue to cross the border every day under normal circumstances but I can't imagine how they're going to manage to check every single person crossing and not cause hours of queues.

Yes same here Long, just Basel in our case. Also annoying to have Swiss people whining about 'lockdown' - there's no lockdown, they can still go hiking and biking and whereever.

Several papers are reporting today that Macron will announce on Monday that schools / maternelles / universities will not go back until September. I pretty much knew this was on the table, but my stomach and heart are sinking at the prospect. For me at least, this is a real game changer - not least as DH and I both work in schools (him teaching, me admin).

I wonder if we will be allowed to move around by the summer holidays? My parents have a holiday home in the South, we have not gone there so far but I cannot envisage spending the summer / canicule in our flat here in the city.

Merde.

@KatharinaRosalie I know, seeing them hiking in the Jura in the nice weather is torture.

I hope we can move about by June. We've got a week booked in Hyères and another in Châteauneuf-Grasse in July.

they can't close all work places until September, can they? What do they expect people to do with their DC? Especially as we are supposed to keep away from grandparents.

Yes, Macron should announce schools, universities etc will restart in September and confinement will continue until at least mid May and considering it is the Ascension and Pentecôte ponts I wouldn't be surprised at the 6 June date 🙁

Le Figaro reports that they haven't decided yet for schools.

They can't send loads of people back to work if the schools are shut.

I just really hope we can go on holiday in August.

Confinement should be announced until 10th May I think to take into account the pont. Which is fair enough.

But how can they expect everyone to stay cramped in flats for weeks on end especially as the death rate and hospital admissions are falling?

Yes exactly Croissants - we're lucky as we have a flexible assistante maternelle for after-school and she'll be happy to have them full days, but not everybody has this option. Especially if all schoolchildren suddenly need one.

We had holiday plans for most of July, of course all flights already booked, plus one non-refundable bloody expensive hotel.

Up until now most people in my neighbourhood were more or less sticking to the rules.

All that went out the window today, pretty much every garden surrounding us is full of families having huge Easter meals. I feel like shit trying to explain to 10yo DD, who is really struggling with not seeing friends and family, that no, we still can't go to my DM's house despite what every other person seems to be doing exactly that.

I feel so sad for her. She's in CM2 and has been in that school since TPS, they were already planning the end of year kermesse and show, but now it's looking more and more like they won't be going back at all.

@KatharinaRosalie

I hear you. For the first time in 12 years we have plans to go away this summer, rather than just head to the cheap holiday down south. One three week trip back to the U.K., and another to Asia- Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia!! What a year to pick. All booked and several elements non-refundable- they won’t even accept a change of dates to next summer. We are going to lose €1000s on it :-(

Thats sad about your DD LaChatte.

Im actually pleased that if this had to happen it happened when DS1 has this maitresse as she is an absolute cow and has reduced him to tears many times. DS2 has a wonderful maitresse so it's sad he's missing out but he finds school easier than DS1 so Im not worried.

Leaving CM2 is a big deal. Do you know where she's going for 6eme? Will many of her friends be there?

I'm surprised at how little DS1 misses his friends. He's been in a huge gang of boys since Moyenne Section (we're talking 14 odd boys all hanging around together everyday and being invited to every party together) but the past 18 months some of them have turned a bit nasty and DS doesn't stick up for himself

We are going to lose €1000s on it :-(

Sorry about your holidays. Everything is very uncertain at the moment. And no-one will be untouched financially.

My main income is tourism based and I will be losing possibly all of it this year. Am trying not to think about it too much at the moment.

Oh @MadameF fingers crossed it doesn't come to that

DH and I got very depressed talking about how long this will last. I think if Macron announces too harsh measures there will be loads of suicides. So many industries are really badly hit.

Sorry about your holiday @Watchagotcha and your business @MadameF

Sorry to hear about all the troubles. Hope it will not be as bad as we fear..
We are still relatively lucky with social security. And that we don't have to worry about massive bills if we do get it (thinking about some friends and family I have in the US).

I also think too harsh measures now, when cases are clearly going down and other countries considering relaxing their confinements, would probably mean more people ignoring the requirements.

My local newspaper tonight says that Macron will announce lockdown until May 10th "at least"; schools and universities closed until September and harsher measures to be introduced as from Tuesday.

Quite why my local newspaper should be publishing that when the large national newspapers are, I don't know.

Its all coming from JDD (Journal du Dimanche) which has quoted a source "close to the Elysee". Other newspapers are more circumspect.

I think that a blanket stopping of school doesn't make sense either. Its not the same for someone in troisième to terminale as children in maternelle or even primaire.

They have even mentioned the School return in September rumour on TF2 TV news just now.

Of course it can be a red herring and when the President announcing a different date some will sigh with relief.

Only 24 hours to wait.