La Défense (France) (AFP)

On the sunny lawn, an employee takes a nap, a couple picnics, joggers pass from far to far: with confinement, La Défense, the first business district in Europe, emptied of its white collar, put in relaxation mode.

"It is quite unreal as the atmosphere, it looks like we are on a film shoot where we had to empty the whole place," said Chérif, a 34-year-old jogger who lives near the esplanade dominated by the Grande Arche. .

"We are in the desert", jokes for his part Khaled (*), maintenance technician who provides maintenance in a nearby tower.

The Coeur Défense towers, which welcome 12,000 employees per day, for example, currently only record "30 daily crossings", notes Marie-Célie Guillaume, general manager of Paris La Défense, the public establishment responsible for planning and running the site.

According to a count made last week, "about 98.5%" of the 200,000 employees who work at La Défense "no longer come", according to her.

The two stations that serve La Défense have only 600 users in the morning during rush hour, compared to 40,000 in normal times.

Public car parks are also experiencing a "very strong drop in attendance, of the order of" 80 to 85%, "notes Ms. Guillaume. This represents a dead financial loss for the establishment she manages, and which, added to those linked to events, already figure in "millions of euros".

- "Weird" void -

From now on, apart from residents and law enforcement patrols, only a few security, maintenance or cleaning agents and employees of three supermarkets have remained visible on the slab.

Many in the neighborhood, the homeless are also more visible than usual. They try to beg, without much success.

If some users of the slab find this void "bizarre", others rather accommodate it.

"It would have to last forever," jokes Ali (*), 50, a cleaning agent perched on his small electric vehicle. "But at the same time, if it's too calm, it's not good for the economy, it means more money," he concedes.

"Job level, we are more act of presence than anything else," recognizes an agent who ensures the maintenance of an office building on behalf of a large company.

"There is less activity but we are supposed to be more vigilant because precisely the fact of lowering the foot, we can miss things", tempers Alexis Char, supervisor within the security PC of La Défense.

Joanne, 55, who has lived in Courbevoie for 18 years, in any case does not sulk his pleasure: "This calm, it feels good, sincerely".

Since the announcement of the end of confinement from May 11, Marie-Célie Guillaume believes however to feel a "slight shudder of recovery", a "small semblance of activity". Last week, "there was absolute silence on the site at the same time," she said.

All the major construction sites in La Défense are indeed shutdown, except that of Eole.

"Life is resuming", confirms Nathalie (*), hostess in an office tower, back to work since the beginning of the week. "We are preparing the new procedures for May 11. We want to be ready!"

(*) assumed first name

© 2020 AFP