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Post by tod2 on Apr 23, 2020 13:26:45 GMT
Kerouac, I see shoppers wearing masks but why are the police not donning masks? Do they think the virus is afraid of them??? Look how close the policeman is too the man in the orange shirt! No gloves…..touching stuff off other people…..
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 23, 2020 14:02:39 GMT
This is of course a ridiculous reason, but the police have been told not to wear masks with people who look healthy because otherwise it gives a hostile impression. Naturally, anybody out on the street is purportedly healthy because otherwise they would be indoors, right?
In reality, there is a major shortage of masks in France. They are still forbidden for sale to the general public.
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Post by bjd on Apr 23, 2020 16:18:28 GMT
I just heard on the news that after May 11, masks will be advised but not obligatory. Only on public transport.
I have two of those forms. I filled out the information in pencil and just change the date when I need it: one for shopping, the other for exercise.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 23, 2020 17:04:01 GMT
In reality, there is a major shortage of masks in France. They are still forbidden for sale to the general public. I just heard on the news that after May 11, masks will be advised but not obligatory. This article is only worth scanning as an indication of how contradictory and confusing mask directives for the general public have been from the get-go. The shortage of masks here has spawned a cottage industry in cloth masks for the public.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 23, 2020 17:45:26 GMT
Here too. People are churning them out at home.
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Post by mossie on Apr 23, 2020 19:10:28 GMT
And here.
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Post by lugg on Apr 24, 2020 8:27:59 GMT
Ah I see re the forms . Yes those policemen do seem to be very close . Here our NHS trust have asked people to make gowns due to a shortage - they provided a pattern - the material has to be splash proof. The county came up trumps.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 24, 2020 9:44:31 GMT
At our place of business we are extremely busy executing orders for fabric and elastic. The fabric requested and needed most for gowns (one use only then trashed) is called SPUNBOND. Any person who is a sewer will recognise the name VILENE , which is used for stiffening collars etc., and feels and looks the same as Spunbond. The demand is for Surgical Spunbond which has that name because it is pale blue. No other reason. Kerouac, I don't understand the reason behind not selling masks to the French public. That is almost the number one thing everyone is asked: to don….a mask. I guess necessity will be the Mother of Invention as hundreds of households wanting a mask will use., Old pillow cases, T-shirts and everything in between will be used. Even old panties for the elastic….
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 29, 2020 18:44:30 GMT
Rosa Parks RER station at rush hour. Just about everybody who uses that station works for BNP Paribas, so they can all work from home.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 30, 2020 9:22:35 GMT
From tomorrow we enter Phase 4 of Lockdown. This means we can officially trade without the necessary certificate of authorisation which we have had because our business is deemed ' a service to combat the virus'. Last night my husband brought home a large box of elastic which had to be cut into 100, 50, 20 and 10 meter lengths. The box held 10,000meters of elastic. No time to do it during the day as customers need to get their stuff and go back home as quickly as possible. He sorted the entire box!
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Post by casimira on May 3, 2020 13:31:31 GMT
Here too. People are churning them out at home. Here as well. My next door neighbor was one of the first to start making masks and she has done very well for herself. Almost everyday we see cars come and go in front of her house picking up her masks. I gave her a bunch of fabric that I had been hoarding and she gave T. and I two sets of masks for free.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 6, 2020 5:16:48 GMT
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Post by mossie on May 6, 2020 7:07:06 GMT
You have to get up early to catch him.
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Post by lagatta on May 6, 2020 14:01:04 GMT
Are those things legal on streets and roads?
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Post by kerouac2 on May 6, 2020 14:59:20 GMT
Yes, they are. But not on the sidewalk.
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Post by bjd on May 7, 2020 19:09:36 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on May 7, 2020 19:33:29 GMT
The best thing about that report is that it takes its time. Usually subjects like that have to be whittled down to about two minutes.
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2020 11:23:41 GMT
That was a lovely video bjd - Paris looks suspended in time…..just waiting for me.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 11, 2020 13:22:46 GMT
To celebrate the first day of deconfinement in France, I decided that I needed a long walk. I chose to walk from my flat to the Eiffel Tower, something which I sometimes only see once every six months. Deciding to walk was an easy choice because at the moment public transportation is forbidden to people who don't work from 06:30 to 10:30 and from 16:30 to 19:30. There were definitely more people out today because a lot of shops would be reopening for the first time in 2 months and while it was doubtful that there would be many shoppers, the people who worked in those shops had to report to work. The first thing of interest that I saw were poppies in an empty lot on my street. Of course it is poppy season in France, but I had been out so little that I had completely missed it.
The Clear Channel signs were proclaiming "This poster is selling nothing. We're just happy to see you again." Translation: "We have no advertising customers at the moment, dammit:"
Too many companies are going into Covid overkill. Yes, we appreciate very much what the medical staff and the little everyday workers did, but why not just raise their salaries instead?
Meanwhile, a local hospital was thanking us for supporting them. Now we are going to have to thank them for thanking us, and then they will thank us again.
There is an office for asylum seekers here. Nobody appears to have told them anything about social distancing.
I reached Gare du Nord, which of course I could not enter because there were bouncers at the door. You can only go in if you have a certificate from your employer saying that you need to go to work.
But they were distributing free masks in front of the station. I received a package of ten, made in China obviously. These are the ones that are only valid for 4 hours.
Health officials have been very specific in saying that you should NEVER discard a mask in the street.
There was a huge queue of taxis waiting for customers at the station. In interviews, they have said that during confinement they sometimes had only 7 euros of fares in the day. Today will be better.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 11, 2020 13:49:53 GMT
I zigzagged a tiny bit heading down towards Opéra. Passed by Square Montholon, still closed like every other park and square in the red zone of France.
I had never seen this establishment before. But anticafés are still closed, just like cafés.
Most hotels are closed and even barricaded themselves because burglars have turned their attention to these places since everybody else is at home and can't be burgled.
People could be tricked into thinking that some cafés are open, but actually only the tobacco counter is open in places like this.
Place de l'Opéra. Not as empty as in the lovely videos, but still pretty empty compared to normal times.
After a brief bike ride, I was soon on the Champs Elysées but without the tourist throngs.
The shopping galleries were perfectly organised to face the invisible crowds.
I made a brief pause on avenue George V to visit my old office. It turned out to be my lucky day because I learned that the people who continue to come to the office only go there twice a week -- on Monday and Thursday. So I chatted for about an hour with the two executive secretaries who had nothing to do, since management has disappeared without a trace. They did point out to me that only six people ever visit the office, and they are all women. The men get their salaries without doing a thing. The airline is completely shut down with only about two cargo flights a week. Interestingly enough, the cargo flights take a few passengers -- VIPs, repatriation missions and even a few people who pay. If they are using 747s, I understand how it works, because even cargo 747s have the upper deck configured for a certain number of passengers. If they are using other aircraft, I don't have the slightest idea how they are set up. Finally leaving the office, I walked past two of the top luxury palace hotels of Paris, both closed until further notice.
At Place d'Iéna, George Washington seemed a bit lonely on his steed.
Then I was at Trocadéro, just across from the Eiffel Tower. This snack stand is probably doing about 98% less business than usual.
Where are the African trinket merchants and their customers?
We were back in authorised times for me to use the bus, so I went home. I will try a different escapade tomorrow.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 11, 2020 13:52:38 GMT
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Post by htmb on May 11, 2020 14:02:28 GMT
Wonderful! So nice to see these photos and I bet the long outing, plus the social interaction at your old office, was great fun for you. Did you feel like a prisoner who’d just escaped? I’d do almost anything to just be able to get out and walk around the streets of one of the cities I love.
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Post by mossie on May 11, 2020 14:18:07 GMT
That was a fair old hike, just what you needed after being cooped up. Many thanks for the pictures of such a quiet Paris, these are very strange times. I have so far only done my indoor exercises today, perhaps you have persuaded me to have a little walk, the temperature is down a good 10 degrees on recent times and there is a nasty northerly wind but I feel I must brave it. It will be all your fault if I suffer s20.postimg.cc/rwnwcelil/grin.gif
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Post by kerouac2 on May 11, 2020 14:25:03 GMT
Haha -- I had not noticed all of the Google Map notifications for "temporarily closed" for all of the museums and attractions along the way.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 11, 2020 14:26:15 GMT
the temperature is down a good 10 degrees on recent times and there is a nasty northerly wind It was very cold and windy in Paris today, but I obviously warmed up considerably during my walk.
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Post by bjd on May 11, 2020 15:52:29 GMT
We had lousy weather today, windy and raining although a bit better this afternoon than morning. We went for a long walk too, to places that had been off bounds for the last 8 weeks because more than one kilometre from the house. There were quite a lot of people out for walks, I guess they felt the need to get out just because they could.
Paris is a great city for walking, even when it's cold. It's nice that you could get out and do so again.
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Post by tod2 on May 11, 2020 16:18:42 GMT
Wonderful excursion Kerouac! I really enjoyed my walk with you!
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Post by bixaorellana on May 11, 2020 17:25:27 GMT
Yes, we appreciate very much what the medical staff and the little everyday workers did, but why not just raise their salaries instead? Hear, hear! This is great, Kerouac! Re: your comment about Place de l'Opéra -- Not as empty as in the lovely videos, but still pretty empty compared to normal times. -- was it not as empty because today was the first day of deconfinement or because those videos are made at dawn or whenever people wouldn't be out anyway? This report is much better that the pretty videos anyway, as it shows reality -- the shuttered iconic hotels contrasted with the clustered asylum seekers, for instance. And I do love how you interspersed your own very lovely photos with starker documentary ones. I have to admit that I am jealous of your long walk in that most walkable of cities. But I'm also deeply grateful that you continue to update this report.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 11, 2020 18:27:39 GMT
To be fair, most of the "little" workers are receiving completely untaxed bonus payments for the confinement period -- 1500 euros for "red zone" workers and 1000 euros for the others. Nothing to sniff at, but it should not be temporary. (The salary of "little workers" is often minimum wage -- about 1200 euros a months. Licenced nurses earn an average of 2200 euros after several years of seniority.)
There was more traffic than I expected and even a few traffic jams. It is actually pretty understandable because many people are still terrified of using public transportation so just about anybody with a car was using it today. With a little luck, this should die down considerably by the end of the week.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 12, 2020 12:56:05 GMT
So I went out again today in a different direction. The painted Stalingrad wall is holding up very well.
The Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad itself is pretty deserted.
There are several huge WeWork places in Paris. Talk about the wrong concept in the time of covid-19! Shared offices, coworking... I don't think so.
Meanwhile the stalwart Communist Party headquarters seems to remain in perfect condition even if the party has fallen on hard times.
I had boulevard de la Villette mostly to myself.
Why have I never heard of this mustard if it is so prize-winningly wonderful? The internet tells me that the brand still exists.
Any sign will do if there are hungry people in the neighbourhood.
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