It ain’t over yet! Keep washing your hands! (And social distancing, which they’re not doing in this old ad for laundry soap)

First it was our masks, now it’s our medicines! The US will be served first if S […]

RATP staff outside Champigny station yesterday Photo: Tony Cross

Health Minister Olivier Véran has given us all a good talking to. There could be a new lockdown if the virus starts to spread again, he […]

The banks of the River Marne yesterday Photo: Tony Cross

Officials say that the end of lockdown went smoothly. But some Parisians threw caution to the winds. And a young man appeared in court in western France […]

Lockdown is over, sort of. It appears that many office workers have stayed at home. Manual workers don’t have that option, as reports from the Paris métro make clear.

“Avoid rush hour,” says this poster at Ch […]

La région parisienne est frappée de plein fouet par des violents orages ce soir, qui sont remontés dans une masse d’air tropicale très instable. Plus d’une centaine d’impacts de foudre ont été recensés sur l’oues […]

“Save lives, stay at home,” the government pleads. But will we?

Why is France ending lockdown on Monday? Even if hospital admissions and cases in intensive care are going down, the virus is still very much out […]

What’s striking about the plan to end France’s lockdown is how little constraint there is – especially on employers. This does not bode well for the brave new world we’ve been promised when the epidemic is over […]

The man in charge of guiding us out of lockdown has a relockdown plan up his sleeve, which is not reassuring. Nor are the findings of two studies that a second wave seems quite likely.

Jean Castex, the civil […]

France is swimming in beer. The brewers say they will have to pour 10 million litres down the drain because bars, cafés and restaurants have been closed during lockdown. One reason for the glut is that […]

“One mask per household from the council” it says. Photo: Tony Cross

We’ve received our municipal masks. Champigny town council has distributed masks to every household ahead of the end of lockdown. And the C […]

After announcing at the weekend that anyone entering France will be placed in 14 days’ quarantine, the government has said this will not apply to people from the EU, the Schengen area and the UK, the latter e […]

A poster welcomes “responsible” mask-wearers to Champigny Photo: Tony Cross

After a cabinet meeting yesterday the papers are claiming that the rules for post-lockdown France are becoming clear. I’m glad they t […]

At home, prepare the revolution, Poster by Atélier Youpi

The French government has opened an anti-fake news page on its website. Meanwhile, the health minister has assured us that more tests would not have […]

Facebook sent me one of those reminders of what I was doing this time last year this morning – photos of teargas, black blockers, Yellow Vests and trade unionists on last year’s May Day demonstration. (You can […]

It’s Mum’s 96th birthday. She agreed that’s a pretty impressive accomplishment, once I had reminded her that it was her birthday and how old she was. We’ve made it through the epidemic so far, so that’s another a […]

So how lockdown ends will vary across the country after all. First Macron said it would be “decentralised”, then media reports said it would be the same everywhere, as befits France’s Jacobin tradition. But when […]

As the nation awaits this afternoon’s announcement on the end of lockdown, the main news stories are back to the old abnormal – police brutality and a possible terror attack.

Deux motards de la #police dan […]

The French parliament is to vote on the government’s post-lockdown plan as a single package. That means there will be no separate vote on the controversial tracking app that critics say will mean more digital s […]

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe will tell us on Tuesday how we are to be deconfined. We already have a fair idea, since the proposals of the government’s scientific advisers have been made public and, of c […]

The bleach-based “miracle cure” mentioned by Donald “Sarcastic” Trump during a Coronavirus briefing on Thursday has been knocking about since 2006, despite numerous warnings about its potentially harmful effects […]