Lockdown in Paris
Life behind doors not entirely terrible for former Coaster
ELIZABETH Boursier Cleveland has to sign a declaration under oath just to go to the supermarket or pharmacy.
If her young daughter wants to ride a bike, she has to wait in her apartment until the kids next door have finished.
The former Gold Coaster yesterday gave an insight into what life is like during a two-week lockdown in Paris, as France attempts to snub out coronavirus.
With her husband Mathieu working from home and her daughter Anne doing school work in the house, the family has seen a lot more of each other than they normally would.
The number of coronavirus cases in France has surpassed 11,000 with 375 deaths, up 40 per cent in one day.
“Grocery stores, the chemist, the street markets, bakeries, butcheries and the cheese mongers, that’s really about all that is open,” Mrs Boursier-Cleveland said.
“You can’t go and buy prepared food, all restaurants and cafes are closed.
“Children aren’t playing together. There are about five or six families in my building with kids that normally play together, but now we see the neighbours from the balcony and their children are having a turn cycling.
“When that family comes up, we’ll duck down and have a bit of time around the playground in the complex.
“For that we don’t need a get-out-of-jail-free card, but once we leave the building we need to have a declaration that we sign under oath declaring you are going to the supermarket, or a medical appointment or to do individual sport, and our ID cards.
“There are police out on the streets doing patrols to make sure people are abiding.
“My husband is working from home, so he’s got his office set-up. I’m working a little bit by Skype. I give English training to people and my daughter, who is six, is being sent work from her teacher.
“It’s not a terrible thing, because we are doing things we wouldn’t otherwise do. We’re having lunch together, it’s really nice and sunny, so we’re doing that on the balcony, a drink before dinner, supervising homework.
“We’ve still got good quality food, we’re not on to the non-perishables yet, still eating cheese.”
She said they weren’t doing any panic buying, just getting fresh food and the lead-up to the lockdown was not as worrisome as they thought.
“Events were cancelled, people didn’t seem too worried about it. Then they announced the closure of schools last Thursday and then of course they had to encourage employers to do work from home.
“Weddings were cancelled, church gatherings only for private prayer.”
Mrs Boursier Cleveland said there had been some great community spirit.
“An interesting thing that’s been happening, on the very first night, at 8pm, word got around in the afternoon to go out on to your balcony or garden and cheer for the medical staff.
“It was in solidarity of them being out at work.
“There’s a lot of good-natured stuff going on as well, people helping out with groceries and other things.”
Once we leave the building we need to have a declaration that we sign under oath declaring you are going to the supermarket