“How’s your pandemic going?”
These days, my mom picks up the phone right away. Oh, she’s home all right—France is on a rather draconian lockdown.
After a month of daily calls, we’re both running the latest Skype version and even though there’s nothing new, we chat for an hour or two just to feel less trapped and hopeless.
Different continents, time zones, weather and an ocean between us but the same shit—this damn virus.
So, what’s going on in France and in Canada?
Here is a (subjective) overview of the situation as of April 23 based on the experience of my mom and siblings in Nantes and Paris and on my own experience in Ontario (note that in Canada, restrictions and challenges vary from one province to another).
Draconian lockdown in France vs. partial lockdown in Ontario
France has been on lockdown since March 17. After weeks of denial (did you really think the virus would stop at the Italian border?), limbo and crisis management, it only took three days to go from “don’t get sick” to “don’t leave home.”
France is possibly the only country where schools were shut down before bars and restaurants. On Saturday, March 14, the government decided the immediate closure of schools, daycares and other non-essential public places, which prompted some epicureans to organize giant picnic meetups—oops. On Monday, March 16, the President announced a full lockdown effective Tuesday, March 17 at noon. As soon as lockdown rumours were confirmed, a mass exodus from the largest cities to the countryside took place, which facilitate the spread of the virus—oops again.
France’s lockdown is among the strictest. Everyone must stay at home except for essential trips out. Only a handful of reasons are accepted—grocery shopping, medical appointments, travelling to and from work (essential employees only), family emergency (childcare or helping an elderly person) and exercising (an hour and 1 km from home max). A dated and timed attestation (permit) must be filled out for each trip out—yes, it was designed to be inconvenient.
On April 13, the lockdown was extended until May 11. It didn’t come as a huge surprise but French now expect some restrictions to be lifted after May 11.
In Ontario, schools, public places and non-essential businesses have been closed since March 14 and March 23 respectively. We must practise “physical distancing” but unlike in France, we can go out. It’s simply recommended to avoid non-essential trips, work from home, cancel all gatherings and stay at least two metres away from anyone you don’t live with.
Geographical and cultural challenges
The virus hit France earlier and harder than Canada so there’s no point in comparing number of cases.
However, it’s interesting to note that it’s probably harder to practise social distancing in Europe than in Canada.
Population density is 117.37 people per km2 in France vs. 4 people per km2 in Canada. Your typical Canadian city isn’t very crowded and we live in an individualistic culture where people tend to drive rather than take public transit, drink at home rather than go to bars and order takeout rather than enjoy their food around other customers.
Canadians tend to need more personal space than French and except for the awkward North America hug, they are more touch-adverse—no social single or double cheek kisses for instance.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that it’s still very chilly in Ontario (it snowed again this week!). At this time of the year, Canadians are slowly coming out of hibernation—going out and getting social in public places isn’t too tempting… yet.
Key words
France stresses on “les gestes barrières,” i.e. preventive measures like hand washing, covering your mouth if you cough or sneeze, avoiding the traditional cheek kiss, etc.
French also conjugate “to be on lockdown,” i.e. “être confiné.” For instance, “on est confinés et on attend le déconfinement.”
In Canada, the key words are “social distancing,” later replaced by “physical distancing” because staying connected is encouraged. The recommended safe distance is 6 feet, or “the length of a hockey stick” (that’s two metres for Europeans).
Compliance and enforcement
Heavy-handed approach in France, as the police stops people in the street and ask them to produce the attestation paper. My mum lives in the city centre. She only goes to the nearest supermarket and to her mom’s (to bring her groceries), in both cases a ten-minute walk, and she is often stopped by the police.
I see police cars patrolling in our neighbourhood, which is rare. Stories of people being fined for kicking a ball with their kid in a public park or playing basketball alone—not okay, you can only walk through parks—have been popping up in the news.
In both France and Canada, people seem to be doing their best to keep everyone safe. It’s not an easy situation—compliance isn’t perfect because we’re human. A national joke in France is the number of people taking up running because it’s one of the acceptable reasons to leave home for an hour. In Canada, I’ve been seeing more and more neighbours and friends chatting on the driveway, keeping their distance.
Panic-buy bestsellers
In both countries, face masks, hand sanitizer, eggs, flour, butter and, of course, toilet paper are often sold out.
My mom reported that ink and printers and in high demand (because of the goddamn attestation to print out before going out but a digital version is now also acceptable) as well as hand soap.
Supermarkets around here often ran out of frozen veggies, baking supplies and canned soup—Canadians tend to have bigger living spaces, so “hoarding” is easier than in France.
Two countries, two (lack of) post-lockdown plan
Macron, the French President, is a big fan of long speeches, occasionally described as “that five-hour waste-of-time meeting where main decisions could have been shared in a 200-word email.” Fortunately, he only addresses the nation sporadically (three of four speeches so far).
Apparently, the government is still working on his ultimate “déconfinement” (a neologism for “post-lockdown”) plan but it looks like some restrictions will be lifted after May 11. One of his controversial decisions is to start with reopening the schools.
Whatever happens, lockdown tension rises and even the most compliant French are getting sick of being stuck at home, so it looks like it’s time to take cautious steps towards… something.
Trudeau addresses the nation daily and he’s been focusing on an economic support plan for the past few weeks. However, he also stresses that life won’t return to normal until a vaccine is available, so it doesn’t look like restrictions will be lifted anytime soon around here.
How about you? What’s going on in your corner of the world?
It’s funny because I feel like the situation is handle a bit differently in Québec than in Ontario. We have more travel restrictions and more immediate testing (which would explain the number of cases?). And schools closed before restaurants here too! (13th VS 15th)
I didn’t know I’d say that one day but I feel safer and taken care of in Canada that I would have been in France. Even I have access to the PCU, which would’nt have been the case in France where I’d face a difficult time financially!
I agree, I think Canada has been handling the situation better than France so far. That said, I’m waiting to see what’s next because the “meh, stay put, wait for a vaccine” approach sounds crazy and unrealistic to me. I also worry about the aid money… I mean, it’s really cool and helpful but at the same time, I wonder how we will pay for it (collectively) at one point.
My neighboroud has a 10 000 hab/km2 density… yuck !!!! 🙁
Wow… okay, now I understand why you’re hunkering down.
I have a similar situation to yours, I come from Milan (I think it’s in the most crowded area of Europe or something like that) but I live in Lausanne now. Switzerland has had a similar approach to Canada, even if they have had a lot of cases per habitant. The swiss culture is more individualistic as well, so I think it’s easier here for people to respect physical distancy. Though I have to say, since last week when the government announced the beginning of the déconfinement, more and more people respect less the rules XD
In Italy and especially in my region it is gonna take a longer time but they had so many cases, that I totally understand that. We’ll see how it goes there as well.
PS I am a physio and I have used the free time I had during these weeks to study a bit the COVID-19 subject, so if anyone has a question or a doubt, I can try answer your questions 🙂
Cara, who sometimes comments here, is from Switzerland and I noted the approach sounded a lot of Canada’s.
As for questions… I have so many of them! The first one is more personal: how do you feel about (eventually) starting to work again? You’re in one of these occupations where physical distance is not doable, obviously.
It looks like we’re going to try to live with the virus for the time being since a vaccine is still far away. I’m not terribly scared about it. Am I crazy??
What’s sometimes you learned about COVID19 that you think we (i.e. people like me without any healthcare background) should know?
(and thank you!)
Ok so to answer your questions, I am not particularly worried about working (I’ll start next week) and more particularly about getting sick. I have a quite practical approach so I’ll do everything I can to protect myself (and my patients of course), but then there’s the possibility to get sick anyway so if I get it, well there’s nothing I can do 🙂 Moreover I live alone so it’s better because I don’t risk contaminating someone.
You are probably a practical person as well, so it’s totally ok to not be overly scared, the most important thing is to know what to do and what not to do, I have found that many people have gone through some “phases” here (denial, panick etc etc) and it’s been the same everywhere because, well, the human mind is the same. So you’re actually totally normal to not panick or worrying too much, we’re gonna live in this situation for several months so in my opinion it’s better to find a way to adapt rather then panicking or behaving like if nothing is happening.
About the COVID-19, there are a few fundamental things that in my opinion people should know well during these times. I’m gonna just make a short list, you can find all the infos about them on the WHO website or on official governements’ websites:
Wash your hands properly and often (hand sanitizer should be used only if you cannot wash your hands). Do not touch your face if you have touched surfaces touched by other people
If you cannot mantain the security distance, wear a mask (even a cloth one is better that nothing, several people are making them now) on your mouth, nose and chin. Check infos on how to properly wear and manage a mask, I see many people on the street not wearing them properly.
Wearing gloves is useless, you’ll have to wash or desinfect your hands in any case (before and after putting them on), you’ll spread the virus in any case and you can get the virus in any case. So unless you work on close contact with people during the day, don’t wear gloves when you go grocery shopping. Just a mask if you want/have to, and pay attention to your hand hygiene.
In general, remind yourself that it’s way easier to get the virus from a person that from a surface, so behave as if you were sick and as if other people were sick as well. 80% of the people who get the virus are asymptomatic or have veeeery mild symptoms, so be conscious of protecting yourself but other people as well, whenever you get out of your house.
Then there would be several more things to know in case someone in the family gets sick etc etc, but that’s more specific.
Sorry for the painfully long post!! I am happy to see that you and your family are doing well, in any case 🙂
En France, certaines régions ont des dérogations et d’autres sont vraiment très strictes.
Juste en bas de chez moi, il y avait jusqu’à peu un arrêté agrafer à un arbre pour interdire le sport en extérieur entre 10h et 19h. L’heure autorisée devait se faire avant ou après ce créneau. Il y a aussi de nombreuses patrouilles de police (et je vois tout le monde s’enfuir comme si ils avaient braqué une banque). Tu trouveras peut-être dans les faits divers cette histoire de course poursuite entre police et jeunes de cité à scooter… L’un d’entre eux a bêtement perdu sa jambe dans leur folie. Il y a eu aussi beaucoup d’abus. Certaines personnes ont eu des amendes parce qu’elles sont allées faire leurs courses, avaient bien leur attestation mais pas le ticket de caisse pour se justifier (genre ils faisaient une balade avec leur pack d’eau et la nourriture sur le dos par plaisir)…
Je pense que je vis mieux le confinement que certaines personnes (enfin j’essaie de m’en convaincre) mais j’ai tout de même hâte que le déconfinement se mette en place – à condition qu’il soit bien organisé et sans contresens. Sinon autant rester chez soi…
Je devine que tu vis à Paris d’après le créneau pour le sport…?
J’adore ton analogie pour les patrouilles de police, c’est exactement ça! J’ai effectivement entendu parlé de cet incident et les médias anglophones ont relayé les tensions dans les cités… plus que les médias français, d’ailleurs.
Mon frère et ma soeur sont énormément contrôlés à Paris même (ils respectent tous les deux les règles, citoyens lambdas…). Ma mère aussi à Nantes, dans une moindre mesure. Dans l’ensemble, ils n’ont pas été embêtés par la police, sauf une fois où ça a failli mal tourner parce que ma mère faisait son tour en passant sur les berges de la Loire, ce qui était interdit. Elle ne pouvait pas le savoir, les barrières étaient tombées…
It was interesting reading this post to see the differences in Canada and France. I’ve been keeping up with the US (mainly Ohio as that’s where my family is) and while they’re supposedly on “lockdown”, it seems other than people being home and schools and restaurants being closed, life is pretty normal. Want to go to the park? That’s cool. Feel like going on a long drive? That’s also cool.
Here in France, my husband is the only one going out for groceries and such (he’s on chomage technique). The only time I’ve been out (other than walking the dog within a km of our house) and in contact with others? When I went to the maternity, because yes, I did give birth during lockdown. And yes, I filled out my attestation to go there and come back (as well as one for my newborn). I can’t wait to get back out into the world even if things won’t be as they were before. My toddler has no shoes that fit (he doesn’t go anywhere but he does play in the yard). And somehow in my half-assed preparations for baby # 2, I forgot to buy shirts (for some odd reason I didn’t save any newborn stuff other than onesies from my toddler – I think he mostly lived in those as it was hot).
Oh, congratulations on your baby! I hope you kept the attestation–should be framed as “my first pandemic/French administration paper”! 😆
I can’t imagine giving birth during the lockdown and this crazy situation… that obviously you couldn’t have imagined a few months ago. Was the birth experience standard? I’ve heard some pretty heartbreaking birth stories at the height of the NYC lockdown (both mommy and baby okay, but rushed experienced or partner ban).
Oh, I kept the attestation!
When I went to my last appointment (with my toddler in tow), they told me that me that my kid wouldn’t be allowed to visit me though the current signs they had up said otherwise. I was pretty upset over this (hello, hormones!) as it would mean being alone at the maternity the entire time. We had plans for him during the birth, but we couldn’t ask them to take him longer than that (this was before teletravail became the new norm and before confinement), so my husband would have to be at home with him. It was also upsetting as we did an atelier together at the maternity that was all about meeting baby at the hospital blah blah blah, so my toddler was expecting that. Cue confinement and then my fears turned to if my husband would be allowed with me. In the end, my maternity has one of the more “lax” policies – the partners are allowed in the delivery room (they must wait outside until it’s sure that’s where you’re headed) and can go to your room afterwards – once they leave, they can’t come back. It seems at the moment, most maternities in France allow the partner in the delivery room (as long as neither have symptoms of covid) and then they can stay until mother and baby go to their room.
So my husband was allowed in the delivery room. Though as luck would have it, my son arrived less than 15 minutes after we arrived in the exam room (they did bring my husband in once they realized my son was coming then and there). We went to the delivery room after he was born for the two hours post delivery time. My husband then stayed about 24 hours with us in my room before going to get our toddler from our friends’ (plus, we have dogs). I was released the following morning (so less than 48 hours after giving birth) as I requested a “sortie précoce” and my midwife came for home visits. His fast birth caused the maternity to break their current protocol (I found out about it later). They were supposed to ask me about symptoms and take my temperature on arrival, but my face must have said enough as all they asked was if it was my first birth or not before taking me to the exam room. And I was supposed to be given a mask to wear the entire time, but nope. I’m glad for that as that must not be fun!
I’m so glad that despite… well, everything else that made it an unusual experience, your husband was allowed to come and be part of the moment. I’ve heard so many tough stories from couples who were robbed of the opportunity… I mean, it sucks. Giving birth with a mask sounds insane!
Congratulations again and I hope things get easier from here!
> did you really think the virus would stop at the Italian border?
Hey, in 1986, the radioactive cloud from the Tchernobyl catastrophe DID stop at the border. The PAF is very tought.
Hi hi, glad you got the joke 😉