Oui, it is almost back to what things were in springtime here, but not as much. Schools are open.
"Live your professional working lives as normally as you can" and "stay at home as much as you can" ... thus spake the Great Leader.
But the real major difference is the attitude. Last time people were motivated. They were worried. They were scarred. They believed what they were told. They thought they were all going to die.
This time, most of them cursing through their teeth.
Last night the femme and I went on a tour of our three favourite local bar-restaurants. All three are planning to stay open on a “takeaway” basis - as they are allowed to.
Then, one of the landlords, after a couple of hefty whiskies, sputtered into his drink something about “drawing the curtains and working as usual for my regulars” and basically running his place like a speakeasy. Another one, after telling us about his takeaway menu, told me “anytime you and the madam want to come over, no problem, you just take a table in the back”.
So that is 2 out of 3 in our little corner of the metropolis, planning to quietly ignore the new rules.
I know of at least one other café down the road that has been openly flaunting recent rules about bars. All the regulars standing drinking, betting on the horses on the screen, and hardly a mask in sight.
Basically, these rules are impossible to enforce, if people do not want to follow them. In the springtime most people believed this was all necessary. Now, things have changed.
We know one lady in her early 60s, an obedient citizen who diligently wears her mask and is convinced that the first lockdown was not only perfectly justified, but a great success. She has a daughter working as a pharmacist in a hospital and every Saturday bakes a cake for the local pharmacy to support them. Now ... she is "fed up" (her very words). "What about the masks? What about the curfew?" she asks ... "why do they need to stop our lives again if any of these other things were supposed to work like they said?"
You may have read about the traffic jam on the eve of the new rules coming into force. Anyone who has a second home in the country (and most well-to-do Parisians do) jumping ship.
The latest rules supposed to last until 1st December. I think Macron might extend for a week or two just to be bloody minded and show he and his health minister sidekick ("Mat Hancock" translates as "Olivier Veran") can do whatever they want. This is all politics anyway – it has as much to do with healthcare as the number of moons around Saturn) but he must re-open for Christmas, or else things could get unpleasant.
This is a political crisis, not a healthcare issue, as it always has been. The problem was never the virus itself - now widely accepted to be a minor microbe only presenting a real threat to a tiny fraction of the population that is easily identifiable.
So, the question now is where will the political solution come from? Which major opposition politician will jump for the "anti-corona-laws" banner. People are waiting to see if Melanchon does it from the left, before Le Pen beats him to it from the right, or whether a new force will break into the open - something relatively easy to happen in French politics where traditional parties are not as ossified as in the UK. After all, Macron himself is a new brand and his party "La Republique en Marche" did not exist a few years ago. (Now lampooned by some as "La Republique en Masque").
In the meantime, if you have a dog, you can just about do as you want outdoors. That is a major exception in the rules. The fury little darlings have never been so precious. A new re-definition of the world "going to the dogs".
We have a similar change in attitude in Wales.
We've gone from local lockdown for over a month (where cases peaked the day BEFORE they announced it and have increased a bit since) to a full national lockdown. When that ends we'll likely be back in local lockdown.
And that'll keep things going until the next national lockdown.
First time round there was benefit of the doubt. It was new, it was scary, people were cautious and thats fair enough.
This time round fatigue has set in and absolutely nobody is following it although the weather has helped to an extent.
Im seeing people going in/out of houses all days of day and night, know of people having family meals as normal and nobody intends on following it. The shops are closed and the Stasi are patrolling in case you go for a walk but all its done is push people indoors.
There's no trust now. 7 months into a 3 weeks lockdown that clearly isnt working, people cant be bothered any more.
The mood this time is anger not fear.
UPDATE:
A bad joke is becoming farce.
I had written this was all politics and nothing to do with medicine and now:
Since the decree announced by Macron on Wednesday to shut down most commercial activity in France starting Friday, various mayors and local leaders have gone into revolt, making their own decrees authorising various small shops to remain open.
Unlike the UK, where corporate chains abound and dominate, small "mom & pop" shops are all over France even in the large cities. These businesses are particularly vulnerable. Various mayors all over France were joined by THE mayor, Anne Hidalgo of Paris who asked for corrective measures to be taken to allow some small traders to operate. She menacingly said that she was "not supporting civil disobedience", basically telling Macron that if he does not change track, then this is coming. Italy and Spain are already in violent revolt, Germany appears to be on the brink and Macron already has resentment brewing in the poor suburbs that are heavily inhabited by Muslims of Arab origin.
The various "prefects" responded by shooting down the legality of most of the counter-decrees issued by local mayors but then, guess what?
Up pops the minister of finance (not health) and predicts that by 12 November the pandemic should be under control enough to partially re-open some commercial activity.
So ... within 48 hours, push-back from local mayors and vocal dissent from Hidalgo, suddenly changed the pandemic situation. Golly.
In the meantime, I walked by one of my locals yesterday and saw one of the regulars standing outside smoking a cigarette. If he was on the pavement with a cigarette, that could only mean there was a drink waiting for him on the counter inside. And this on the first day of the second "confinement". It did not take long for people to speak through their actions.
TWIST IN THE TALE
Some good news to those who started to believe that legislative assemblies have turned into corpses and rubber stamps for governments exploiting fear and hysteria:
Against all expectations, and in a serious upset, the French National Assembly voted to terminate the "state of medical emergency" on 14 December. This is the set of laws that allows the government to do just about what it wants: force people to wear masks, lockdown, impose curfews and whatever else.
The government had proposed legislation to extend this until 16 February. The French equivalent of the Conservative party proposed an amendment cutting that down to 14 December and, surprise, it passed!
It appears the main reason this happened was that Macron's party, that enjoys a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, did not show up! Many deputies stayed away in an act of supreme over-confidence, and the opposition got the amendment through.
An incandescent Olivier Veran (French translation for "Mat Hancock") thundered that he was away from the chamber visiting hospitals etc and of course blamed what he said would be suffering and death on those opposition deputies. He really blew a gasket on the chamber floor!
We now wait and see what the government will do. They were due to send the bill on to the Senate in a couple of days - and where that chamber, where Macron does not have any majority, was already preparing to cut the time down to 31 January. (In fact the government originally wanted to extend its special powers to 1st April but they realised that would not fly in the Senate so went for mid-February so it does not look too bad when the Senate clips it by a couple of weeks).
The government is urgently trying to see what it can do to get the 16 Feb date back into the text.
But, there is a glimmer of hope - no more than that right now - that France may just manage a normal Christmas. Although Macron and Veran will do everything in their powers to prevent that.
But this shows that the covid panicdemic has not totally killed off parliamentary life. Yet.
That's all good news to my ears no matter how small the progress is. Nice to hear news from across the water as trying to find any here is proving difficult.
😉
