- Originally scheduled until March 31, confinement has been extended by two weeks, until April 15, and may be extended further thereafter.
- The French are invited to stay at home and to move only when it is essential (provided with a certificate).
- If confinement is difficult for many French people, for others, it is rather well received.
There are those who go around in circles, those who count the days, those who can no longer supervise their partner, those who tear their hair in the face of the divisions of the youngest ... and then there are the others. Those who, against all odds, live well this forced confinement and would even go so far as to appreciate it.
Since March 17, only one valid watchword: stay at home. End of outings, drinks on the terrace, movie evenings, dinners with friends, early morning metro ... Our daily life is now turned upside down for a few more weeks. But a handful of French people seem to have found happiness there. They confided in 20 Minutes .
"Holidays of the mind"
If there is one argument that comes up, it is that of time. “We live in space-time and usually I run out in space and run after time. There, I finally caught up ”, explains Léa who believes that she now has“ quality time ”. Julie goes even further: she lives "her best life". While she had "not a weekend of her own", she now inspires "to take advantage of these moments and simply wait for time to pass". "If doing nothing saves lives, then I love it," she explains to 20 Minutes . Same thing for Sandra who feels "soothed": "We no longer run, we take the time to live fully. Some, such as Marie-Line or Marouane, have chosen meditation to "get better together". "I consider this period as a vacation for the mind," said Marouane.
A meditation all the easier when the noise gives way to silence: "All day long, I hear birds and nothing else. It changes screams, noises, the phone, colleagues' conversations, ”concedes Murielle. Victorian, for whom confinement is "a real blessing", rejoices "that the world is less noisy". "Living in the here, the now, but also the silence reveal vanished virtues and I feel all the benefits: general well-being, return to altruism, compassion, listening to the world who surrounds us ”, philosopher, for her part, Christine.
"It may seem paradoxical but I feel more connected to the world"
For many, confinement rhymes with solitude. But for others, it is an opportunity to spend time with family. This is the case of Edith, whose two girls will leave home next year for their studies: “These intimate moments of confinement with them are precious, suspended and pleasant. I have time to devote to them, too. ” For Nicolas, the father of three-year-old twins, confinement is an opportunity to "make up for the moments lost with the family". "My children are hallucinating to see their parents at the same time for more than three hours in the same day," laughs Adel, who even thinks, after confinement, of "sending everything waltz to devote himself solely to the well-being" of his toddlers.
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And it's not just the kids. Thanks to FaceTime, group calls on Zoom and WhatsApp aperitifs (and so on), confinement allows some to have more time to take news of their loved ones. "It may seem paradoxical, but I feel more connected to the world," explains Caroline. Quentin has "never spent so much time on the phone with his family and childhood friends." For Maud, this is an opportunity to call her grandmother "every two days instead of once a month". A time that allows us to “pay more attention to others,” says Mélanie. "I take the time to ask for news of my loved ones and to really listen to them."
"The opportunity to change mentalities to simply appreciate what we have"
We have time. But then how to occupy it? The traditional cleaning that we always postpone the next day, reading the books that have sat on the shelf for years, the practice of an instrument that we had left in the cellar or just the whole of Netflix (we do not judge not, promised)… There is no shortage of activities. Like Marie: “I cook, do housework and draw by listening to audio books that are too boring for me to read them myself. "The space is frozen and I take advantage of the time to do everything I wanted to do: sports every day, read my philosophy book, learn to play the piano, go to bed early at night. Finally, I have the impression that I am able to keep all of my good resolutions accumulated since January 1, 2012, ”says Léa.
And for those who are lucky enough to have a garden or who have left to confine themselves to the provinces (this is not the case with the author of this paper, but promised we still don't judge), this is the opportunity to "prepare the vegetable garden and maintain the outside," explains Cyril. If confinement can look like forced confinement for some French people, Coline relativizes: “We have been deprived of certain freedoms but I have the impression of having recovered others at the same time. "Victorien, he even hopes" that one day, we will be able to establish an annual confinement of ten days to take the time to find each other, to clear our heads, and to have time for ourselves ". Corine, for her part, hopes that confinement will be "an opportunity to change mentalities to simply appreciate what we have".
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