This Tuesday at noon, at the Hippocampe, in Carnon - N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse

  • The restaurants have reopened on the port of Carnon, in the Hérault.
  • All of them bent over backwards to implement health measures.
  • Customers are delighted to have a drink or a meal on the terrace again.

"Ladies, will you have an aperitif?" This question had not resonated for more than two months, on the terraces of the port of Carnon, near Montpellier, in the Hérault. This Tuesday, it has an air of found freedom. "If I don't come today, when do I come, then?" “, Laughs a customer of the Hippocampe, a restaurant in Saint Mark's Square, pulling his chair. "It's symbolic! "

After a confinement that will have caused major damage to the profession, some restaurants reopened their doors this Tuesday at noon. Others preferred to delay their return to business for a few days to better prepare themselves. Because the sanitary measures that are required are not so simple to apply. And to apply.

Virtual cards

Stéphane Moaty, the owner of the Hippocampe, a stone's throw from the Mediterranean, worked until "4 am" to get everything ready on Tuesday. In the early hours of the morning, he was still tweaking a QR Code, so that customers did not have to handle cards. "You scan the code on the table, you can view the entire card on your smartphone," says the entrepreneur, who has nevertheless put aside some traditional cards, for those who technology rejects. "But they will have to be cleaned every time!" "

At the Hippocampe, in Carnon, you can flash a QR Code to download the map on your phone. - N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse

At the entrance to the terrace, in the restaurant and in the toilets, the Hérault restaurant owner placed hydroalcoholic gel dispensers, set up a queue with large taps of adhesive for the toilets, installed a new outside counter, to pay his bill without entering the restaurant and has put up posters everywhere in his establishment to warn customers of what to do.

The owner of the Hippocampe, in Carnon, has set up a traffic direction in his restaurant. - N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse

Wearing a mask is compulsory, but "we are not police"

One of them will be more difficult than the others to enforce: wearing a mask. It is "compulsory" at the Hippocampe, advertise small signs. But this Tuesday, if the restaurant team wore them well, no customer had them. "But we are not police officers, we are not going to wage war on customers," says Stéphane Moaty, however. The customer must normally arrive with a mask. Remove it for consumption. And put it back if he has to get up, go to pay or go to the bathroom. "

At the Hippocampe, in Carnon, wearing a mask is compulsory - N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse

As for the distances between the tables, they cause the restaurateur to lose "around fifty covers" out of 160. "I hope that for the third phase of deconfinement, distancing will no longer be compulsory," notes the entrepreneur, who indicates that he has lost 12,000 euros per month since confinement, and was forced to apply for a loan.

“Complicated” timing

A stone's throw away, another restaurateur is also busy to receive its first customers. In La Plancha, a large hydroalcoholic gel terminal stands on the terrace, the wearing of a mask is compulsory and the tables have also been spaced here, to respect sanitary measures. Thanks to a boost from the town hall, which allowed the restaurants to expand a little more than usual, the entrepreneur saved the furniture.

“What is very complicated to manage is timing, says Umut Tasdelen, the boss of La Plancha. We had to close the restaurant overnight, and even if we had some feedback, we were not really announced the reopening until last Thursday. To put everything in place, in four days, it's work. It is also very complicated with suppliers: all deliver to everyone at the same time. "

"We were tired of cooking at home!" "

This Tuesday, at midday, some customers, sunglasses screwed on the nose, settled on its terrace, overlooking the harbor. "I had a lot of reservations, we feel a little wriggling," says Umut Tasdelen. Above all, there should not be a psychosis that settles among the clients. We are safe in a restaurant. "

“A drink, a dish on the terrace! Finally ! We missed it! Meet, conviviality, all that, ”says a Carnonnais, who sips a rancid à ​​la Plancha. "We were tired of cooking at home!" Smiles a neighbor. “We try to keep our distance, to respect the barrier measures, notes another client. Coming is also a way to support restaurants, which need it badly. In the restaurants of Carnon, the first dishes of the day come out of the kitchens. Not a day like any other.

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Deconfinement: Masks, distances… Is the application of sanitary measures impossible in discotheques?

Montpellier

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  • Economy
  • Languedoc-Roussillon
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • Deconfinement
  • Sea
  • Restaurant
  • Beach
  • Montpellier