“We are at war!”, Launched Saturday March 14, 2020 Emmanuel Macron, announcing the closure of bars and restaurants the same evening and a general confinement Tuesday March 17 at noon. The President of the Republic inaugurated with this call for mobilization, the year of all the dangers that no one yet perceived. This coronavirus, so far away, was getting so close. A first death in France on February 15 would precede the gradual rush to supermarkets, quickly relieved, among other things, of … toilet paper. The confinement pushes to the exodus towards the countryside, the French become refugees in their own country. We are afraid of our shadow, we strip our hands, we are forbidden to wear a mask if we are not contaminated… It is time for the certificates and controls that go with it, an hour and a kilometer well justified. It is the beginning of teleworking, the children in the paws because we can no longer manage to keep them. Partial unemployment, state aid, trial and error of all kinds, the orders and contractions of a government and its scientific council overwhelmed by events. Eight weeks when day turns into night, ghost towns and partitioned inhabitants who, on their balconies, applaud every day at 8 pm, the caregivers who are at the front. Deconfinement on May 11, we breathe. We meet again as before the war in bars, cinemas and restaurants from June 21. The tourist season is already on its way even if the grip is loosened a little in the summer under the guarantee of barrier gestures, health protocols, bans on gatherings. A summer without a festival, fueled by the fear of spoiling everything with an irresponsible attitude. The epidemic starts again anyway on August 20, we start counting the dead, scrutinizing the curves, seeing on TV the procession of epidemiologists who hammer out: “the virus is still circulating”. Reconfinement, a little more flexible, from October 29 to December 15. And beyond to say goodbye to cinemas, theaters, bars and restaurants, but also to ski resorts, family Christmas tables and New Year’s Eve. The 6 p.m. curfew, partial until then, is extended to the whole country on January 16. It has been a long time since all French people have been required to wear a mask… This is where we are. Until when ?
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