From Wednesday, it will again be possible to have lunch on the terrace.
On the eve of the reopening, it is therefore the uproar in the bars and restaurants, which wonder if they will be profitable.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, attended the final preparations on Tuesday morning, in a restaurant in the Saint-Michel district, in Paris.
REPORTAGE
"Approximately how many tables will you have?" Asks Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, to the manager of a restaurant in the Saint-Michel district, in Paris, on Tuesday morning.
"We will have around thirty tables, whereas we usually have more than double", answers Gregory Desbrandes.
"We make do with it, we are already happy to open."
Seven months after the forced closure linked to the second confinement in the face of the Covid, restaurants are finally authorized to reopen their doors, or rather their terraces, from this Wednesday, with the strictest protocol.
"We must open anyway, for our mental health"
Obviously, the activity will not be the same as usual, especially if the bad weather is involved.
But for Gregory Desbrandes, the main thing is to get back to work.
While the manager has little hope of making money this week, he believes that with state aid he will at least avoid losing any in the near future.
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"Without these aids, we would not meet our expenses", explains the restaurateur.
"Us, we are normally open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So there, with an opening of 12 hours a day, it will not be the same thing. But we have to open anyway, for our mental health, in particular ", continues the manager.
The Mayor wants "simplicity"
Some people are still worried about leaving a few feathers there, because reopening means re-stocking, hiring staff, and maintaining machines.
All this, without foreign tourists and with every other table, turns out to be complicated.
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For the very small terraces, Bruno Le Maire wished to recall that he trusted above all in common sense.
"We are not going to arrive with a centimeter and wonder if the spacing to a centimeter is the right one", specifies the Minister.
"There has to be some distance. But I have complete confidence in the French people's sense of responsibility and I call for a lot of simplicity in the application of the rules."
The Minister of the Economy also ensures that a review will be made at the end of the summer to decide whether aid should be stopped or maintained in the last quarter.