Containment, one year later
Audio 02:30
A jogger runs along the Seine on the 4th day of the containment put in place to slow the Covid-19 epidemic, in Paris, March 20, 2019 AFP / Archives
By: Marie Casadebaig Follow
6 mins
A year ago, France was sealed off.
It was the start of strict confinement, the strictest she had ever known.
For nearly two months, schools remained closed, only essential shops could continue to operate, many French people were forced to telework.
Almost two months locked at home which marked the spirits.
A year ago, we gave the floor to French people faced with loneliness, confinement but also exceptional solidarity.
Today we hear from some of them.
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Six children are locked up all day in a small HLM apartment.
Their mother, Zakia Kahia, who raises them alone, remembers this confinement as a never-ending day.
Even if his city, Nice, has returned to confinement on weekends, some things are back to normal today.
“
There is school now and some activities on Wednesdays apart from weekends
,
” she tells us.
Before it was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, etc.
But if the children's lives have regained a semblance of normalcy, Zakia's is still as shaken up as ever.
“
I don't go out for myself, except if I have to do things.
The confinement created financial problems for me.
"
Isabelle also would like to speak of confinement as a distant memory, but this period has left its mark.
This fifty-something had found herself alone in her two-room Parisian.
She had suffered from loneliness, which has never let go of her since.
“
This loneliness has increased, for a year it has worsened,
” she testifies.
We have less and less freedom.
It's hard to be well when you live alone.
I realized that I hadn't kissed someone for a year.
Even my family, we stay at a distance, we no longer kiss each other, we no longer hug ... It's something that weighs a lot.
I find this life super sad.
"
To counter the withdrawal into oneself, a year ago, many French people had shown ingenuity.
In Saint-Méloir-des-Bois, a small village in Brittany, the mayor played a piece of music chosen by one of his constituents every evening.
An initiative which had created an unprecedented conviviality in its town of less than 300 inhabitants.
"
It germinated but it did not grow
" notes, a year later, Michel Desbois, the elected representative of the Breton town.
“
We resumed the curfew at 6 pm, which cut off any relationship.
But I think it's not extinguished like embers under ashes.
"
And Michel Desbois has something to hope for a flashback.
The village has, since confinement, 45 more inhabitants: city dwellers who have had a bad experience of confinement in the city.
"
It's very good except that they do not have the opportunity to mingle with the population since there is no longer any celebration, the associations are completely at rest,
" the mayor points out to us.
For all these French people, finally, a year later, there remains the feeling of confinement which no longer speaks its name but which settles over time.
A half-life just waiting to be awakened.
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