France - is this where we’re heading?

[Dustballs]

I’m shocked at the figures over there for number of infections.

Anyone actually in France - what is it like over there now? We were on holiday there and at the time it felt worrying to read 3,000 daily infections were being recorded. UK caught up quickly though.

I wonder what it’s like in France now as that is likely to be us soon.

Following with interest. My DF and DM had a holiday there in August, they said it was much stricter than the UK in terms of mask wearing etc, but I’m very interested to know what it’s like now.

I don't know what it's like there but I guess we are heading in that direction unless they are waaaay more lax on social distancing rules there?

Yes

It was way stricter. Everyone wore masks properly and shops all had proper spacing and Perspex.

Only open air swimming allowed.

It just felt ... safe.

Interesting that death rates are similar to ours despite huge increase in infection rates. I think our death rate will be much higher once we get to that level of infection.

Despite teaching at 3 higher education establishments I still feel relatively safe. It's weird. What I'm living and what the news says feel quite different.

At the worst offender - big uni no social distancing. Masks all the time. Even outside. But the organization is chaotic to be polite.

No exceptions on masks for anyone ever that I've seen.

In the most strict school. 25 cases last week because some students had a party. Anyone has a test they have to stay off for 7 days.

Students well spaced in classes. 50% of students in each class being taught via video conferencing . Good supplies. Classes cleaned 3x a day. We were all trained to do these twinning classes. Training was obligatory.

Lots of testing available. 2 different sites at the uni for example.

I am expecting to catch it really. All france is on a 2 week break right now. So we will see. But despite going through 5 schools as a family every week and cases in all schools so far no-ones caught it.

Gosh. Thank you @Wallywobbles that’s really interesting.

France seems to have a better set up in schools at the moment than here in the U.K.

We’re in the south, in one of the Départements that will be moved into the French equivalent of Zone 3 on Saturday. There’s a bit of grumbling around, as levels can vary hugely across regions, with much higher rates of infection in the big cities than smaller towns, and yet the restrictions are applied across the board. But on the whole people are pretty compliant with the rules, and masks are being worn everywhere.

It seems to me that the relationships between national, regional and local government work far more efficiently, so there has been no unseemly public squabbling between Castex and the regional Préfets.

As @Wallywobbles says - although the news tells me the situation is bad it really doesn’t feel that way. Gyms and other sports facilities are closed for the foreseeable, which is a pain, but otherwise it’s hard to believe there is a huge global pandemic underway. Maybe that will change once the curfew and other restrictions come into force at the weekend but right now it really feels like life as usual, but just don’t forget your mask.

It’s hard to compare strictness of rules across countries. France has tighter mask restrictions, but was a lot more lax with social gatherings (you could have a wedding with 100s of guests during the summer).

Definitely heading. Things are not strict enough here-for instance, no enforced, widespread mask-wearing, not enough sanitisers in stores/public (some places have them, some not), not enough social distancing.
We will eclipse France.

Masks and social distancing are very strict, I have to wear a mask all day in the office and DD3 does at secondary school.

We have had to close down our business for the next 6 weeks.

Curfews are now in place over half of France so you cannot be on the street between 9pm and 6am (except for workers).

But we met up with friends twice at the weekend (9 people Saturday and about 12 on Sunday) schools are still open (half term this week) and shops are operating as normal.

It doesn’t feel like it is on the news day to day. Besides social distancing and mask wearing, not much more has changed.

My department is moving into curfew on Saturday from 9pm to 6am which doesn’t really effect us as we’re never out during those hours anyway.

I still can’t believe they allowed the TdF to go ahead with massive crowds all over the place.

Does this not tell us that allowing large crowds mixing has far more impact than mask wearing?

I can’t believe they allowed weddings of 100 people.

Another one in France who agrees with the other posters.
Life is relatively normal. We have a curfew however can still either chose to eat out a bit earlier and be home by 9 or go out for lunch instead. Met up with people in with little restrictions ( think less than 6 advised which is fine, and can mix households). My gym only closed a few days ago but can still play tennis. All shops open. So as someone who is rarely out late, life is normal. ( yes i understand not everyone is to be home by 9)Hospitals coping in this area, dh had a routine operation recently in Marseille, not cancelled, lots of precautions, ( i could not pick him up, sent home in hosptial taxi) , and did not feel like the hospital was under pressure. Lots of testing, and quick tests being brought in. Numbers are alarming but have stabilised in my area and the government hopes they should start improving shortly. Feels very calm. Masks are worn and compliance on this high.

I agree @Delatron, and I can’t see the French being compliant about not mixing in houses either. But hey, it’s yet another thread about how amazing other countries are and how shite Britain is.

Forgot to say bars have had to close but in area is mostly cafes and restaurants and only a handful of bars and many people would have had a drink in the cafes most of which would have a drink only section.

Is it right the the self isolation time in France is 7 days rather than 14 here?

Yes @ noteven, they government changed it when they discovered that only 20 percent were adhering to it because it was to long.

But hey, it’s yet another thread about how amazing other countries are and how shite Britain is.

Did you actually read the OP?
It's nothing of the sort.

Posters who actually live in France are just stating the facts of how life is for them.

Yes we are mostly under curfew now - for 6 weeks. Hefty fines for not complying.

Local businesses are having to make the decision whether to close early for the winter.

All bars in our area have been told to close.

Not sure how any of that is insinuating that France is amazing/UK is shite?

Yes @ noteven, they government changed it when they discovered that only 20 percent were adhering to it because it was to long.

That is so interesting. I do wish we would copy this and the schools’ policy from France. It is just not workable to send an entire year of primary school children home for 14 days for one infected person in the school .

It’s hard to compare cases when we can’t compare how much testing is being done or how targeted that testing is. Their deaths being similar might suggest similar infection rates 3 weeks ago.

In France have they had the same explosion in university student cases? I had a year at uni in France, and students generally lived at home and commuted to their closest uni, although there were some halls of residence.

The thing is that I cannot look at France or Spain or Italy to be honest and think all we need is everyone in masks and everything will be fine given according to many threads on here in all these countries they have 100 percent compliance with mask wearing and yet still very high infection rates.

I say this as someone who wanted mask wearing to be the answer but it doesn’t seem to be based on this evidence. I do agree we will end up where France is now as we are not doing anything amazingly different to stop it but as I increasingly see the countries that are supposed to have handled it much better than we have still complete fail to stop a second wave...well I find it quite depressing really does anyone know really how to manage this pandemic in a western interconnected nation where it has already taken hold?!

And actually the one thing we are doing more than France in figures is testing we test a lot more actually do I don’t think you can say that France has more cases because it’s better at testing just in numbers (although they may make better use of the tests they do have, testing less small children with a child for example? I don’t know)

I was listening to an expert yesterday on the radio and he was arguing mass testing is the only way out of this mess. And by mass testing, that’s basically the entire population constantly! With speedy, instant results.

I think it would be worth cutting quarantine. Test at the end of the 7 days. I read 96% of cases develop in the first week anyway it’s just 4% the following week. Plus with the compliance issues this may help.

I’m really confused by this thread op. You talk as if France is more severely affected than the UK and wondering if we are ‘heading’ the same way?

Are you aware that we have a higher death rate per million of population than France?