It’s the end of lockdown – and the village has gone wild

The village square is a long and pedestrianised oblong shaded along its length by massive pollarded plane trees. It’s known as ‘le Cours’. There’s a Tabac and a Spar and an ancient fountain that children play on and a shop selling Panama hats. Otherwise le Cours is dominated by the tables and chairs of a dozen or so bars, cafés and restaurants. Viewed from one end at the height of summer, it looks like one great dining hall under the trees. In July and August chic families drive up here from the Mediterranean coast to eat. One recognises the clothes and that forbidding, peculiar aura of new wealth.

Until last week you could have fired a shotgun up the Cours and not hit anyone. The pollarded plane trees wore their usual green summer magnificence but on the ground only the Spar and Tabac were open and the tables and chairs were piled into great dismal stacks.