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

@CroissantsAtDawn you can't get materials anywhere even if you want to make them!!!

@ChateauMargaux I'm absolutely aching to have a walk around the lake and see my friends in the city. I miss it so much

@pinkhousesarebest my Terminale DD is the same. She's getting work to do from her Philo and droit teachers and she just keeps saying "what's the point". It's so hard not knowing when or even if they'll be back.

I am using old sheets and pillow cases for masks and fortunately had a good stash of elastic. Unfortunately I got rid of all the remnants of fabric that I used to use to make what my granddaughters called their Von Trapp dresses. 😂
(They wouldn't be seen dead in them now).

Change of subject but, for those of you with family in the UK, how are you handling it? DH and I both have elderly parents living back home. My parents are fine - big house, big garden, big freezer, and no health issues other than being over 70. But DHs parents... his mum had Parkinson’s and dementia, they live in a tiny flat, no garden and no outdoor space. She was right in the edge of needing help with personal care, they’d made contact with various people in the local authorities etc - then shutdown. All her medical rdv have been cancelled and not rescheduled, she’s not taking her medicines properly, she is getting more confused and upset (doesn’t understand what’s going on), she’s losing mobility due to be stuck inside all day. And my poor FIL is having to do everything. They seem to have been forgotten in the rush to shut everything down. It’s so hard being this far from them now - and absolutely no prospect of getting to the UK or seeing them for a long time to come. DH is really stressed.

I should say that DHs sister does help them out, but she’s so worried about passing anything into them she basically nips in and out to pick up / drop off laundry and have a quick distanced chat.

I riding school have been told that ponies need to keep 3m apart so that won't work for the children. They are starting individual lessons with adults only and see how it goes.

Will we be able to go clothes shopping as of Monday? Somewhere like Kiabi for example (I did try to order online but their site keeps crashing)?

I am really sorry to hear about your PILSs whatchagotcha. It sounds awful. Can your DH call adult social services on your PILs behalf?

Yes shops can open from Monday if they choose. We've bought a couple of things online to pick up. Unfortunately other shops we want are part of a large shopping centre that isnt allowed to open

We have a wonderful independent bookshop here, and I really hope they'll survive, so I ordered books 10 days ago, to be picked up as of Tues, when they reopen. Other than that, I'll be steering clear of shops for a bit, TBH, and carrying on with the Drive shopping and my veg box delivery (it goes to the local butchers, but we don't eat much meat, so I just collect the box and buy some wine from their shelf, to feel less bad at using them as a depot).

Elastic is in very short supply so do,t forget to keep the elastic from,your masques jetables if you want to make your own masks

Can you imagine,e apéros now. No sharing of gâteaux apéros well have to give everyone a preprepared plate 😮🙄

Massive thunderstorm in Paris right now. Been going on for over an hour with no breaks in the Lightening and thunder and strong winds with horizontal rain. Road is flooded. Lost electricity for 1 minute- just enough to have to reset all the clocks grrrr.

We don't buy a lot usually anyway - we're pretty frugal for clothes and objects. I can't see us going shopping in the coming weeks except to replace the various things that have broken....however I will make an effort to buy books locally instead of online.

Haven't missed shopping at all. Les centres commerciaux are my idea of hell. I hope that the virus will mean that town centres shops start to be more popular as they've had a terrible time with the gilets jaunes. I would feel safer shopping in an open air environment rather than an enclosed air conditioned shopping centre

We got the storm here too. It was an impressive one. I've not done the rounds yet to check for damage but we have lost the trellis with our honeysuckle.

The road has drained but not the courtyard. A couple of flats open onto that so they ll be splashing through several cm of water if they venture out today.

I reclaimed the elastic from an old fitted sheet for masks.

Two new Covid clusters in France : www.ladepeche.fr/2020/05/10/un-nouveau-cluster-decouvert-en-nouvelle-aquitaine-4-personnes-testees-positives-dans-un-college,8881126.php

I think I'll also feel safer in the open, shopping in the city streets rather dans les centres commerciaux. There's a pretty large fabric shop near me and I'm hoping it will be open tomorrow and have some elastic. Otherwise I'll have to use an old sheet, great idea btw.

@Watchagotcha sorry to hear your PIL are struggling.

@Booboostwo our Kiabi is in a commercial park so will probably be open based on the rules. As long as they're not in a centre commercial, they can open as far as I understand.

I'll be carrying on doing supermarket shopping at the Drive and collecting a veg box for a good while, I think.

Weather forecast for the first day of déconfinement is non-stop rain here.

Old socks or t-shirts make for good elastic substitutes (cut socks horizontally into rondelles, or t-shirts into strips).

Hair bands are supposed to be a good alternative to elastics.

I've made dozens of masks and none of them have elastic. I make a cord out of the fabric which then ties around the back of the head. Much more comfortable than elastic round the ears and can be boil washed. You could use any kind of fabric cord, shoe laces for example.

Thanks for these ideas. I tried a mask with ribbon but it kept slipping down.

I think ribbon would be too slippery

Our village has clearly had it with confinement. Several people seem to have others over (to be fair, less than 10 people, not massive gatherings) and saw a good dozen people on their bikes.

TBF does it really make a difference if it is today or tomorrow? We have Dd1's bf over today. They haven't seen each other in 8 weeks and they are both working tomorrow.

No, not in reality. They might all get a fine if anybody complains. But I just sent DD to play with a friend as well, they haven't seen each other for 55 days.

Deconfinement definitely started on Friday in most people's minds here. The number of people out and about it just sunbathing made it feel like a regular day.

Raining heavily here today which has reduced the crowds but I think people will think that they are pretty much back to normal as of tomorrow. I must admit that worries me a little bit.

Am completely non-handy with a needle and don't have a sewing machine so we have ordered a couple of fabric masks from Etsy and DH picked up some disposable masks from Carrefour on Friday. The Ville are distributing masks but suspect we won't get them until a week or two at the earliest. DH will use one of the disposable masks for his appointment at the hairdressers on Thursday.

We both still will be working from home and I pretty much haven't planned to go anywhere so don't think I'll need too much mask-wise. Got a really pretty Mondrian design one though! 😊