When I left my apartment for my morning run today I saw that someone had scrawled on the courtyard in large chalk letters ‘Tenez Bon, Les Voisins‘ (Hang in there, neighbours).
It could have been a message for the whole country. France is flagging after two and a half weeks of complete lockdown and the fact that today is the start of the official Easter holidays will only fray nerves further. To make matters worse, the country will be treated to a taste of summer this weekend with temperatures from Paris to the Pyrenees forecast to touch 23C on Sunday.
In an interview today the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, revealed that since France went into lockdown on March 17 there have been 6.7 million identity checks resulting in 406,283 fines for breaching the rules of the ‘confinement général’.
Castaner warned the country that the police would be particularly vigilant this weekend as it was the start of the Easter holidays and anyone thinking of sneaking off to the seaside should think again.
Memes have started circulating on social media, among which is one inviting people to name the day when they’ll crack
At the moment there is a gentle groundswell of dissatisfaction with the ongoing confinement, but earlier in the week Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the far-left France Insoumise, became the first prominent politician to demand answers about the length of the lockdown.
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