Paris. Benjamin and Izan play football in the courtyard of their building during the confinement due to the coronavirus. - Mr. GANGLER

  • France now deplores more than 3,000 deaths due to the coronavirus. At the hospital, 5,000 people are currently in intensive care.
  • To prevent the epidemic from spreading even faster, the French have been ordered to stay home since March 17.
  • In Ile-de-France, in particular, it is for some the opportunity to take advantage of the courtyard of their building in order to breathe without too much health risks.

Sophie started by fitting out a route in her 35 m² apartment. And take out his calculator: "In total: 33 steps. I did 20 laps three times a day. Or about two kilometers. But it was not enough… ”, confesses this former headhunter specialized in the tourism sector. Confined to this accommodation in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine) while waiting to be able to return to her main residence in Orléans (Loiret), she then had the idea of ​​taking over the courtyard of her building. This dark and humid space that she usually crosses only in the morning and in the evening. An irregular floor slab struck by mossy and slippery paving stones.

“At home, I didn't even have a plant to give water to. While downstairs, there is a pretty maple tree under which you can sit… ”Neither one nor two, Sophie therefore made an appointment with her neighbor. And at 4:30 p.m., a good distance from each other, they had tea under the old tree. Long enough to decide to install two chairs permanently. And to throw on a piece of paper the first lines of a word that now sits in the entrance hall. “These times of confinement change our habits and this gives us the opportunity to see things from a different angle (…) No need for certification to breathe a breath of spring air! ", He assures.

Issy-les-Moulineaux, March 31. Two chairs were placed at a sanitary distance in the courtyard of a building during confinement. - V. VANTIGHEM

Martin's first steps, the walk for his dad

Sophie is not the only Ile-de-France woman to have had this idea. This is one of the unexpected effects of the coronavirus: a new life is now offered in building courtyards. For the past few days, that of Jean-Sébastien, a lawyer based in the 17th arrondissement, has welcomed the first steps of his son Martin, just over a year old. “There are climbing plants. For him, it's like the virgin forest, laughs his dad. Even for me, it's the day's walk! "

With all the usual precautions, however. Jean-Sébastien used the WhatsApp loop of the condominium to set up a rotation, before realizing that many neighbors had actually fled Paris. “In the end, there are two families who use the courtyard. We do not meet. And when he goes down, the lawyer systematically puts on gloves to open the doors to his son.

I never needed a garden wch even a building courtyard no matter how hard it is there

- it's bathing (@mbachba) March 27, 2020

We rediscover the pleasure of chatting and the sound of birds

Maud's children are a little older. This is probably why she first opted for the walk around the block option, certificate in hand. “We did an hour of scooter. But at their age (7 and 11 years old), they touch everything and put their hands to their mouths. It is not possible… ”Since then, Benjamin and Izan have let off steam in the“ garden ”of the condominium. "It's happiness, coward the youngest." We play soccer and tennis. And we observe the insects… ”

At the start, their mother, a documentary film maker, warned them well against the noise that echoed between the façades. But over the days, she was surprised to see, on the contrary, the windows open when the children were sprawling on the lawn. "There is a widowed man, and a lady to whom I did not speak," she explains. They pass a head. And at a good distance, we talk every day for 15 or 20 minutes. It feels good… "

Our file on containment

Logic, for Annaïck Le Bouëdec, researcher in Information and Communication Sciences. “In everyday life without confinement, we are in a big hurry and we turn to an efficient consumption of the conversation. Now that the time is available, we realize that talking can be a nice activity. Listen also, if you believe Sophie. Going to read in the courtyard, she was surprised, during her last visit, to be disturbed by ... the chirping of birds.

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