Unconfined, the French reconnect with their parks

They (finally) find green spaces. The French found their accessible parks and gardens this Saturday after more than two months of closure due to coronavirus. On this Pentecost weekend, and when cafes and restaurants are also preparing to welcome their first customers on Tuesday, the lawns were reinvested in numbers like at the Buttes-Chaumont, one of the largest parks in Paris, or even in the Luxembourg garden.

What a joy to find the Buttes-Chaumont! 💚💚💚 pic.twitter.com/H0CFfGXwYA

Luxembourg Garden. #Paris #distanciationsociale (or not) # COVID19 #parcs @Paris pic.twitter.com/etF8bJEEHi

Joggers, blissful brats in front of ducks, strollers, bikes and scooters ... "We have real relief because for our children, it's a real escape (...) It's our lungs that reopened", rejoices Cécile. “Liberation, deep breathing, happiness, relaxation, and freedom. Because there was enough to go around, around the gates, seeing the trees all alone, bored, "says Philippe, a mask" in his pocket ".

The mask is "recommended" but not compulsory, and at each entrance gate, a can of hydroalcoholic gel is self-service, found an AFP journalist.

The mayor of Paris breathes again

Wearing the famous mask, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who has been demanding the reopening of the parks for several weeks against the advice of the government, did not hide her joy by crossing the gates of a square in the 3rd arrondissement this morning. "We recommend wearing a mask (...) we especially hope that everyone will be able to enjoy (...) these pieces of greenery which are absolutely essential to our lives," she said before the cameras.

The government gave the green light Thursday to the lifting of many restrictions thanks to the continuous decline since April 9 in the number of patients treated in intensive care. All the departments are in the green zone with the exception of those of Ile-de-France, Guyana and Mayotte, passed from red to orange, and where the deconfinement will be a little more careful.

"We are delighted to be able to live again"

In Paris, the reopening time also struck for the Galeries Lafayette, before which a queue of several dozen people had formed in the morning, boulevard Haussmann. "We don't push, we come back calmly!" You need a mask to get in, ”hammered a guard. At 11 a.m., the doors opened and the small crowd entered under the applause of the employees, after disinfecting their hands at the entrance. "We are delighted to be able to live again," says Martha, a manager in the leather goods department.

The beaches and lakes should be gradually accessible again from June 2, the date on which other restrictions will be lifted, such as the removal of the limit on travel more than 100 km from home, the reopening of high schools and coffee shops. Parc Astérix will reopen on June 15 "with exceptional sanitary measures".

But beware, the 100 km rule is "still in force this weekend" and there will be "controls", warned the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, calling "to the responsibility and civility" of the French for this phase 2 of deconfinement.

Society

Deconfinement: Limit of 100 km, Overseas, borders… The announcements of Edouard Philippe on displacements

• Deconfinement
• Covid 19
• Coronavirus
• Society
• Park
• Garden