PARIS DIARY

Saturday 20 June 2020

We have been back in Paris for a week now, shocked at first by the crowds in the streets after seeing perhaps half a dozen people for 2-3 months, gradually adapting to the new normal: masks, few people in the shops where entry is restricted, gel waiting to be used. In the open air fewer masks are being worn—perhaps about 50% of the time, and not so much on people under, say, the age of 30. No tourists, or extremely few: I heard a family speaking Italian on the Ile de la Cité where I went to buy plants and detoured around Notre Dame. If there are out-of-towners they are French speakers. Still, café terraces (no eating inside yet) are packed and tables overflow onto the street or, where sidewalks are wide, onto the areas outside neighbouring shops.

We have taken buses in the middle of the day. That’s ok. Haven’t ventured into the Metro yet. Lots of walking, in parks and along the Seine.