Paris (AFP)

Two days before the long-awaited sesame, cafes and restaurants were actively preparing to welcome the first customers on Sunday for two months, while under a summer sun the Parisians were enjoying the newly reopened parks.

After weeks of dramatic forced closure for the survival of certain establishments, bars, cafes and restaurants in green areas are authorized to reopen on June 2, with strict sanitary rules: maximum ten people per table, distance of one meter at least between each group, standing consumption prohibited in bars ...

In Ile-de-France, Mayotte and Guyana, always on the alert orange, only the terraces can reopen.

To "allow our cafeterias and restaurateurs to reopen when they are in danger of death," stressed Sunday on Europe 1 Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy to the mayor of Paris. While respecting certain rules of good neighborliness: "no noise, no music, closing at 10 p.m.", he insisted.

"The bar atmosphere is not going to resume, it will really be a terrace atmosphere, table service with a meter distance between each table, it will really be to start something, but we will not repeat what we did previous years ", commented Arnaud Bazire, owner of the bar-restaurant Le Comité in the 19th arrondissement. "The few tables we will have on the terrace, we will always be full so it will already be a good start, yes."

Some have already anticipated the opening and on Saturday crowds of customers were forming in front of restaurants offering take-away formulas or improvised terraces.

Bad luck, four establishments in the capital were fined and their terraces closed by the police.

Inspired by summer weather, Parisians also stormed the banks of the Seine, the Canal Saint-Martin or the lawns of the parks reopened since Saturday, wearing or not the mask, only "recommended".

- "To fight" -

In the Tuileries Garden, in the heart of the capital, dozens of joggers, walkers and amateur photographers took over the premises very early on Sunday morning.

"I dreamed of being able to walk in the Tuileries garden, it was my desire to be pregnant, and finally I can do it, I'm in heaven", explains Adriana, a 35-year-old resident of the neighborhood.

The reopening of all beaches on Tuesday is also eagerly awaited, as in Nice.

"Usually, we start working in March, it's still a hell of a loss!", Comments an employee of Opera Plage, a more than 100-year-old establishment in the Baie des Anges who will only have a little more half of the 300 to 400 mattresses usually installed on the rollers.

In total, the Covid-19 killed 28,771 people in France, according to the latest report published on Saturday, which did not update the figures in Ehpad.

The number of intensive care patients continues to decrease (1,325). This slowing down of the epidemic allowed the government to give the green light Thursday to the lifting of new restrictions.

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.

The travel limit more than 100 km from the home will also be lifted, but it is still in effect on this Pentecost weekend where checks must continue.

But the lifting of a large number of restrictions does not mean a return to normalcy with a virus still circulating and an economy hit hard.

The economy took a little breath with the start of deconfinement on May 11, but it will not return to its pre-crisis level for a long time.

"The country will have to fight against the impact of a historic recession," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe warned this week as the government reports an 8% recession and unemployment is rising.

"We find freedom, nature, space and above all economic activity. But we do not yet know the extent of the damage. (...) We suffered a tsunami," said the former minister on Sunday. of the Environment Ségolène Royal on Europe 1-Les Echos-Cnews.

© 2020 AFP