PARIS DIARY

Tuesday 23 June 2020

Life seems to return to normal. Yesterday all kindergarten, primary and middle school pupils went back to school for the last two weeks of the school year; social distancing, from what I read, has been somewhat relaxed in the classroom, and it is expected that 90% of pupils will be present. Families around us returned from the country, and when I asked two pre-teens in our building how school was today late this afternoon, they said, ‘Très bien, merci Madame.’

I ran grocery errands in the covered market, then we took today’s Le Monde to the park and read it. The usual boulles, chess and checker players; the children’s playground newly open and full of small children and their parents or grandparents or minders. Everything looked very green with out fresh eyes, the chestnut trees taller, the delphinium bluer…

It is hotter tonight. We ordered a mobile AC unit, but it isn’t being delivered till next Monday, when perhaps we won’t need it any more. Tomorrow I’m doing a shift at the Soupe. We were said to be one of the few soup kitchens open, and had almost twice the usual number of eaters, but perhaps the city’s other kitchens are also reopening?