• France: The details of the curfew decreed by Macron: authorizations, total closure of shops and wedding ban

  • France.Macron decrees a curfew in France, in cities on high alert: "We have not lost control of the situation"

"This is the Gendarmerie. It's 9 o'clock. The curfew is about to begin.

Go home

.

"

The dark blue Renault van just parked at a crossroads north of Place de la Bastille.

The speaker has a metallic, old-fashioned ring.

Here starts the rue de Lappe, which has 37 numbers and a greater number of bars and restaurants.

With a quarter of an hour to 9 o'clock, in Chez Paul they are laying the wood that covers the windows.

Inside, the customers at

the last table

have paid and are preparing to leave.

Two ugly and empty Vietnamese are left open.

They do not lower the blind because they serve food at home, a bowl of vegetarian soup at 8 euros.

The owner of the tobacconist is making cash with the shutter open.

Nobody enters.

Because there is no one on the street.

You hear the rattle of the wheels of a traveler's suitcase and a click, click.

He is the neighbor on the first floor, above the Khao Suay, bar restaurant & nightclub, who is cutting his nails at the window.

In this bustling street where the accordion reigned and the balajo was danced, where there are records and live performances, queues, crowds and fights, there is such silence that you can hear a dirty tenant cutting his nails.

Where the gendarmes have parked a while ago a young couple teased the kids.

"Come on, come on" the mother said while the father carried the little one on his shoulder.

The gendarmes patrol four by four,

the rookie with his rifle in hand, all wearing white masks.

They ask me for the attestation that justifies my presence but as soon as I say that I am a journalist and I

show the official accreditation, they pass from me.

It is the first night, it is not cold and the good vibes manage to repeat the message over the public address for Austrian television that has not been able to record it in full.

Members of the Gendarmerie request certification to remain on the street after 9:00 p.m. ABDULMONAM EASSAAFP

The Place de la Bastille, recently redeveloped by the socialist town hall of Anne Hidalgo, is almost deserted.

The Opera is closed because the season has not just started.

We are so few that another patrol asks me to identify myself.

The curfew has gone into effect without problems.

In fact, at 8:30, only "le paradis du fruit" was open.

The truth is, I have not verified if they were serving yet because the last thing I would ask for before a curfew is a multi-fruit.

On the terraces, the last customers finished their drinks while the waiters piled up the chairs.

At 9:13 there is only light on a chain of hamburgers.

The Cinema Majestic has turned off its old neon signs, they patrol them, ask the last ones if they live nearby and send them home.

First day, zero tension.

In the Vosges Square only the greengrocer closes late.

There is no one in Le Marais.

On rue de Rosiers, they take advantage of the absence of traffic to unload a freight truck.

People are not there to tell the journalist their lives.

"It is what it is"

, "What do you want me to say, if this stops the pandemic".

A man waits for the subway in a lonely station.ABDULMONAM EASSAAFP

Obviously, bar owners have been angry since the day Macron announced a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The world of culture asked for derogations.

For example, the cinema ticket served as a safe-conduct like train or plane tickets.

But Prime Minister Jean Cástex

did not want to make exceptions.

A lady who has taken the dog out changes the sidewalk.

Gay Paris has lowered the blind by the hour

and clusters of 'bears' or leather-clad guys have had to go home.

In a fine shop of pleasure articles they have left the window lit up and are promoting the "couvre feu pack, seven romantic gifts and 8 rogues to entertain their evenings."

At 49.90 euros instead of 75.

The Parisian curfew sounds like Occupation and "Le dernier metro" with Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve where François Truffaut actually told the story of her father.

The current legal basis is the 1955 law adopted by a radical socialist majority.

It has been applied many times, most of them in conflictive neighborhoods.

In 1961 it covered a massacre of dozens of Algerians

in the process of independence.

The current one has the support of the surveys and the will to adapt to stop the Covid.

Thus the Crazy Horse has advanced its sessions.

Instead of 20:30 and 23:00, passes are at 15:30 and 18:00.

It must be a bit weird walking into the cabaret in broad daylight.

But as Macron said: "you have to learn to live with the virus."

It's 10 o'clock, the streets

belong to riders

and homeless people, untouchable, when

the third patrol led by

a woman approaches me.

I don't even have to get the accreditation.

"Come on, go home and good night."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • France

  • international

  • Paris

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid 19

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