In the streets of Strasbourg on December 9, 2020. -

G. Varela / 20 Minutes

  • Traders sell mulled wine to take away.

  • Problem, it creates crowds, more and more numerous in recent days and does not really allow to respect barrier gestures.

Too cold, too many restrictions, too much of everything maybe.

So a little glass of mulled wine, at the end of the evening in the streets of Strasbourg, chatting with friends, after work or at the end of the weekend, it's tempting, and not forbidden.

Almost a tradition in the Christmas capital, a sort of divine blank check to pretend nothing had happened.

Problem, with the ban on Christmas market chalets, the closure of bars and restaurants due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is not easy to find the invaluable drink.

Well almost.

In recent days, some traders have started selling mulled wine and Christmas tea to take away.

Results, queues but above all a lot of consumers, masks lowered, without really being able to respect the barrier gestures that gather to taste their drink on the threshold of the shops.

As in the greatest days of the Christmas market.

Some traders have even taken out tables, high or not.

A little newfound freedom that many appreciate after dark, but which should not satisfy the authorities seeking at all costs to avoid gatherings.

This is also one of the reasons that had motivated the decision not to open the chalets of the Christmas market.

Especially since in recent days, the incidence rate in the Eurometropolis has stagnated around 133 cases per 100,000 inhabitants according to data from the ARS Grand-Est (107 in France), and hospitalizations are not really weakening.

According to Public Health France, there have been 24 new hospitalizations in Bas-Rhin alone in the past 24 hours.

"A hole in the racket"

“It's okay, we're outside,” assures a young woman who laughs at the top of her lungs, mask down.

"Same certainties with their neighbor one evening who adds:" You just should not be tight to each other ", launches the young man glued to a complete stranger, also without a mask.

"We have the right, it's a hole in the racket," smiles another.

Not better on the side of some traders.

A bit embarrassed, one of them who reopened his doors for the occasion, explains that "these are only a few well separated tables" and that in any case "he can not prevent customers from consuming in front of his house. .

"

Our containment file

And it's not better on the other side of the border, in Germany, which deplored the same situation from last weekend.

The German Minister of Health as the Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg on Tuesday declared in the German media that the measures were going to be strengthened, in particular with the ban on the take-out sale of alcohol in the open air, the Center tells us. European Consumers France (CCEF).

Even if these measures are expected this week, some German media are however talking about the 3rd Sunday of Advent… "Other Länder will also take the same measures", adds the CCEF.

On the Bas-Rhinois side, the Bas-Rhin prefecture Josiane Chevalier, whom we contacted on this subject, has not yet answered our questions.

Health

Coronavirus: The rise in infections is "worrying" in Germany, according to the Institute for Public Health Surveillance

Reindeer

Coronavirus in Rennes: Forced to close, bars offer beer and wine to take away

  • Society

  • Strasbourg

  • Health

  • Christmas market

  • Alcohol

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus