France lockdown 2 - vers un deconfinement

[CroissantsAtDawn]

2nd thread discussing the lockdown in France and the impending deconfinement...

First thread here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3850860-Lockdown-conditions-in-France

So we had friends over for a proper meal last night. And apart from no touching and kissing everyone had a really enjoyable normal evening. Kids delighted to have mates over, adults too.

longPause I went to Switzerland with DS this morning and can report that here in Haut Rhin, the border guards could not care less, waved us throught.

@Wallywobbles that sounds lovely!

We had a music rehearsal this week. Nice to have some noise in the house and to sit on the patio with friends and a cold beer.

Having a picnic in the park here. Magic.

Thanks for the link Mistigri.

Tomorrow should be interesting. Off to the big city to go to my dermatologist appointment. That's going to be interesting as:
she's never less than an hour late
we are not allowed to be multiple people waiting
and I've been advised to turn up 15 mins early.
Up for a long wait in the car park at a guess.

Then going to beautician to have my brows tamed. So a bit more risky (and painful) day than I've had for months.

I went down to the river today, totally empty until 13h, then the world and his wife showed up. No more social distancing than normal. We had a picnic with friends and other then not doing the bise, it was exactly as it was pre covid.

Went to local IKEA - had never noticed that they actually have bilingual signs (French-German). Everybody in masks and definitely more busy than on a normal weekday, but not quite pre-christmas levels.
Otherwise all feels like normal again.

Has anybody heard anything about summer camps yet? All cancelled? We have some day camps here I was really hoping to send the DC to, but not a word if they are happening or not.

I don't know about camps. Probably tricky.

DS2's athletics club are starting training again tomorrow, in small groups with an extra coach and activities designed to allow distancing. It's meant to rain, though

We got an email from the lycée today. Anyone with a moyen of 11 or less is being encouraged to go back in from next week. Everyone else is being given a choice of whether to go back or not. DD is sitting comfortably with a moyen of 14 and a conditional offer in Uni so she was quick to say no thanks So she’s officially graduated I suppose!

Thankfully we no longer have to wear masks in the classroom, phew.

Dd in CM2 went back to school for the first time today; it didn't go well.

She's about 2 weeks behind in French (I'd been taking care of maths with her, I thought DH was doing French, he thought she was doing it on her own...). Also we hadn't printed out all the worksheets and things (there are almost 80 pages to print in all, I have an HP instant ink account with 15 pages a month on it).

In the playground they had to stick to their own little spot and weren't allowed to interact with each other. Apparently they're expected to bring a game to keep themselves occupied on their own. I'm so sad for her.

DS is in première bac pro, his PP called today to find out if he was coming back or not, seeing as he's interne and the internat is closed they assumed not, but I've said he'd be coming back if the ateliers were open (although he can't be there before 9 as there aren't any earlier buses). The PP said he'd let us know, he sounded as clueless as the rest of us.

Morning all. Has anyone else downloaded the StopCovid app to their phones yet? Mine downloaded ok but DH's is not activating. We share an Apple account, could that be a problem?

Ignore me. Switching off and switching on solved it. 😱

DD2 went back to school yesterday. There were 4 of them in the class in the end. She was absolutely thrilled. They had a hopscotch competition during break time with each of them having their own stone.

Wow.
We have just had a message from DS2's school with a table showing the schedule for June 8th- July 4th.
Most kids go for just 4 days in all over that period. DS2 and one of his friends get zero days. They are just not on the table at all.
No explanation other than capacity and 'we have made the decisions that seemed best to us and appreciate that not everyone will like them.'

Wow that sucks and I do not believe it's the only option. 0 days in what is basically a month? And 4 days is also ridiculous, not much better.

DD will not go back, they're not opening the maternelle PS and MS at all, also because her teacher has taken one of the primary classes. But with MS, I am not making any efforts with her school work, so does not make much or a difference (except in babysitting fees).

Apparently, another parent told me, it's partly due to understaffing, as a lot of teachers don't want to go back and have medical certificates and other means of not going on.
But it's a big problem, because lots of employers have accepted the official line that schools are open more or less normally after next week, and have begun limiting WFH.

It's his last year at that school, where DS1 went, too. Crap way to end it...he didn't even know last Friday was his last day there.

Several of DS's classmates parents have now said they regret not sending their DC to school. They got concerned with all the scaremongering posts about how children will be sitting in cages and whatnot, not allowed to do anything. Now when the ones who went back are perfectly happy, they are regretting the decisions, but at least initially school said the decision was final and they can't change anything later.

I am selfishly hoping they won't allow people to change their minds, as more DC means they can only do part time.

On a different topic, went to one of the more touristic towns the other day (Colmar). In the summer, it's usually so packed you can barely squeeze yourself through the crowds of tourists. Now it was lovely, just the locals. Of course I understand people depend on tourism, and I hope tourists will return for their sake, but it was a nice change. Bigger tourist attractions must be something else, right? Paris?

DD will be going back to PS full time as of Monday

That is crap Auld, sorry to hear they’re being rubbish.

Thanks.
In the grand scheme of things, whether he goes 4 days or zero makes little difference. But none of us had realised that there was a possibility of our kids losing their place for the whole of the last month. It was a bit of a shock.
DS2 is fine about it (I think - he does quite a good job of pretending not to mind about things to make me feel better).

Wondering whether I could get a medical certificate and duck out of work, though, like 2/3 of the teachers in his school. I'm really tired, and a whole month with home schooling and WFH seems like a long time...

Of course it's a long time. I really feel like I got so much more energy now that I don't have to do homeschooling any more.

Any guesses on what universities are going to be doing in September?

We’re looking at a mix of online and on site teaching.

So are we. With plans for lectures to be filmed and streamed to students offsite, which will happen over my dead body.