France is entering a new phase of its deconfinement with the reopening of many cultural places, shops, terraces and a curfew shifted to 9 p.m.
Here is everything that changes this Wednesday.
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Life after the Covid is not for now, but the French are eager to find a little of that before, with the reopening on Wednesday of many shops or places of culture, closed for months.
That of the terraces is particularly awaited, with in particular a rush on the starred restaurants, in spite of the capricious weather.
Here is what will change from this Wednesday.
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Reopening of the terraces at 6 per table
In Paris as elsewhere, the cafetiers were activated on Tuesday to bring out tables and chairs, while the delivery trucks brought the barrels of beer. But despite the enthusiasm, reopening the terraces this Wednesday does not necessarily go without saying since it will be subject to conditions: tables of six people maximum, with a gauge at 50% of the capacity.
"We are normally open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So there, with an opening of 12 hours a day, it will not be the same thing", confides to Europe 1 Grégory Desbrandes, manager of a restaurant in the district Saint-Michel in Paris.
The reopening of the terraces is "a symbol, a fundamental step", judged the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, during a visit to a Parisian restaurateur.
"The French economy will recover," he wanted to believe.
Cinemas, theaters and museums with gauge after 203 days of closure
After 203 days of closure in a row which put them in economic jeopardy, cinemas, theaters and museums will also be able to reopen to the public with maximum attendance figures.
They will be 8m2 per visitor for museums, monuments and art centers;
cinemas and theaters will accommodate a seated audience up to a limit of 35% of their usual capacity ceiling and 800 spectators.
About twenty films will be released in theaters on May 19.
At Max Linder, a Parisian cinema, we are impatiently awaiting the return of the spectators, and the first scheduled screening is already sold out.
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On the museum side, "the exhibition has been waiting for the public for six months, hung on the walls," Laurence des Cars, director of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, told AFP.
"We will have a very beautiful and clean Chambord for the reopening", for its part affirms to Europe 1 the director of the castle Jean d'Haussonville, a castle which reopens this Wednesday like the museums and other French historical monuments.
Stores and shopping centers reopen
Another supervised reopening is that of clothing and toy stores or certain sports activities.
Shopping centers of more than 2,000 m² will once again be able to receive the public, while since January 31, only food stores were authorized to open in these supermarkets.
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Curfew extended to 9 p.m.
However, Wednesday is far from marking a return to normal: applied throughout the territory since January 16 at 6 p.m. then 7 p.m., the curfew will be shifted very gradually.
It will be postponed to 9 p.m., before being postponed to 11 p.m. on June 9 and then, if the health situation allows it, to disappear on the 30th.
The mask outside still relevant, except in certain areas of Ardèche
No question either of doing without the mask on the outside.
"If the circulation of the virus continues to decline, it will be quickly considered", nevertheless promised the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, Monday evening on BFMTV.
"I cannot give a date today, it would not be honest on my part. But once we can meet again, calmly consider the end of the barrier gestures and the end of the mask outside, we do not will not wait 24 hours. We will say it immediately. And I sincerely hope that it will be this summer ", he had already declared on May 4 on Europe 1.
In Ardèche, however, this will already be the case from Wednesday, but only in areas with low population density, announced the prefecture.
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Continuation of the vaccination campaign
At the same time as the reopenings, France is continuing its vaccination campaign, having reached its target of 20 million first vaccine injections by May 15.
"We will have to remain at a very high plateau in the vaccination centers to meet the target of 30 million injections in mid-June," said the Ministry of Health on Tuesday.
Because the latest figures confirm the public's disaffection with AstraZeneca's vaccine, reserved for over 55s because of the extremely rare risks of serious thrombosis.
On Sunday evening, the dose utilization rate was 92% for Pfizer / BioNTech, 88% for Moderna, but only 56% for AstraZeneca.
To try to limit the risks, the executive also promises to review its strategy of spotting and isolating infected people, deemed too ineffective by specialists.
"We have to manage to make a new evolution of this test-alert-protect so as to capture the chains of contamination much faster than last summer. Vaccination alone cannot stop the contamination", we admit at the Elysee.
Wednesday's reopening takes place when the epidemic is clearly receding.
The incidence rate fell to 142 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over seven days, from more than 400 in early April.
This can be seen at the hospital, where the number of Covid-19 patients reached less than 23,000 on Monday (22,749), the lowest since October.