Paris rediscovers its taste for cafe society as bistro lockdown is lifted
PARIS IS rediscovering its joie de vivre, as cafes and restaurants reopen for the first time since coronavirus forced them to close on March 14.
Many customers seemed to shrug off masks and social distancing as they streamed back to their neighbourhood bistros for a morning espresso or a threecourse lunch, free to resume their lifestyles by a surprise announcement from French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We will rediscover... the art of living, our taste for freedom,” Mr Macron said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday night, citing progress in fighting the virus. “We will rediscover France.”
After two months of being totally shut down as part of France’s strict virus lockdown measures, restaurants outside the Paris region opened earlier this month. Since June 2, Paris cafes have
EMMANUEL MACRON: ‘We will rediscover... the art of living, our taste for freedom.’
been allowed to serve people outside but not open their doors. Before Mr Macron’s speech, the full reopening was not expected until later this month.
At the Cafe Des Anges, in the heart of the Bastille neighbourhood of Paris, customers seemed happy to reconnect and talked about the need to remain careful – yet almost no-one wore a mask. France has the world’s fifth-highest recorded death toll from the virus, at 29,410. “It’s like a renaissance, but with caution,” said customer Marie-Elisabeth Vilaine.
The reopening caught many restaurant owners off guard – just like the abrupt closure three months ago, when the prime minister announced that all the country’s restaurants had to shut down by midnight.
Paris seemed especially depressing as restaurants, the lifeblood of the city, stood closed with chairs stacked against the windows and menus gathering dust.
After three months of losses, some restaurateurs fear it will take a long time for business to come back. Some French restaurants are experimenting with plastic barriers and air-filtration systems to soothe fears. The risk of a second wave of infections remains real, notably after new virus clusters in some countries and US states were traced back to reopened restaurants.
THE AMOUNT of time fathers spend looking after their children has dramatically increased during lockdown.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that men’s childcare hours have increased by an average of 58 per cent since the shutdown began on March 23.
The figures showed men’s weekly working hours – if their commute is included in the total – have fallen by 11 per cent on average over the same period, or one hour and 37 minutes per day.
In 2015, men spent 39 per cent of the time women spent on childcare, but during lockdown this rose to 66 per cent.
Think-tank the Fatherhood Institute has calculated that to maintain the current levels of childcare post-shutdown, fathers would have to find about eight hours of extra free time each week.