" Curfew ? We would never have imagined experiencing this in the village ... "

Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon is the least populated municipality in the metropolis of Aix-Marseille Provence -

• As in other French metropolises, a curfew will be in force in the metropolis of Aix-Marseille Provence

• This territory includes small towns, such as Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, 125 inhabitants, the least populated of the metropolis.

• On the spot, this measure surprises, even if the fear of the coronavirus is very present.

From our special correspondent in Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon

"Oh, is the curfew tonight?"

»At the end of a winding and narrow departmental road, the inhabitants of Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, a quiet Provencal village nestled at the foot of the Sainte-Victoire mountain, seem to be miles away from the health crisis that is shaking Marseille and Aix-en -Provence for months.

And yet, the hundred people who live year round in what is the least populated town in the metropolis of Aix-Marseille Provence will not escape this intermittent confinement this Friday at midnight, and this for several weeks.

This Thursday, at the end of a meeting in the prefecture with the elected officials, the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône has indeed decided to apply the curfew to the entire metropolis, with the exception of the municipalities of Saint -Zacharie and Pertuis, respectively in Var and Vaucluse.

That is to say 90 municipalities in what constitutes, after Grand Paris, the most populous metropolis in France.

" It does not make sense "

“This curfew with us, that does not make sense, sighs Christian Delavet, mayor of Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon since 2014. We are 127 inhabitants on 1,750 hectares.

It is clear that we are in a natural area with a scattered habitat.

The curfew does nothing.

People don't live on the streets.

There is also no one in the street!

“Indeed, on this sunny Friday morning, not a cat in the center of the village, both literally and figuratively.

In the distance, only a handful of courageous people ready to climb the summits of this high place of hiking disturb the ambient tranquility.

“A curfew in Saint-Antonin?

We would never have imagined experiencing this in the village…, continues the city councilor.

When I learned that, it was astonishment.

I thought the prefect was going to be pragmatic.

Apply as a precaution in Saint-Antonin a decision that we would apply to Marseille… We have not had a case since the start of the Covid affair, here!

"

"It's getting closer"

“It's a little weird, this story, asks Gérard.

It's pretty oversized.

Me, that won't change me much.

In the evening, I will always go and play boules!

Here, we are disconnected from all that.

The Covid is something that concerns the city, and that we hear constantly being repeated on TV… ”

As a background sound, Pascale's radio, at full speed, broadcasts the heated debate between two columnists who cause the incidence rate and dangerousness of the coronavirus.

“During confinement, we heard about people who knew other people who had been sick,” she explains.

There, it approaches.

We know sick people, individually, who live in the area, in other cities.

We are not immune to the epidemic.

"

"I'm afraid for my stepmother"

Despite the beauty of the place which calls for a certain serenity, the fear caused by the Covid-19 epidemic indeed seems to have gradually won over the inhabitants of the town.

“Last Sunday, a customer sneezed on the terrace,” says Nicolas, the owner of the Maison Sainte-Victoire restaurant, the only business in the village, with a smile.

But a hurricane-style sneeze, eh!

Well, after his "atchoum", everyone looked at him and there was a big blank.

I had to do a little bit of humor, otherwise they were all going to leave!

"

And to resume: “I am not afraid for myself.

I'm 40 years old.

I'm in good health, although I wouldn't like to nab that stuff!

But I'm afraid for my 80-year-old mother-in-law.

There are a lot of old people living around here.

"

And the prospect of the school holidays does not come to calm these anxieties, in particular on the side of the mayor.

“We dread the coming days, alarmed Christian Delavet.

This weekend we are going to have an influx of the city's population coming for a walk on the Sainte-Victoire.

And we see that many of these walkers lack recklessness.

Barrier gestures are not respected.

Groups should wear a mask, if only as a precaution!

Fortunately, in normal times there is no contact between walkers and the local population.

»For the next two weekends in October, the restaurant in Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon is full.

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