France ‘at war’: how Parisians are coping with life under lockdown

Residents of the French capital are adjusting to the country’s toughest restrictions on public life outside wartime

And suddenly, it was August. Grudgingly but obediently, the rue des Martyrs in Paris’s ninth arrondissement entered lockdown at midday on Tuesday, the few people on its pavements making their way home, baguettes and shopping bags in hand.

By 12.30pm, half an hour after France’s new reality – in essence, no going out unless to buy food or essentials, visit the doctor or get to a job certified as not doable from home – came into force, the normally bustling shopping street had emptied. Continue reading “France ‘at war’: how Parisians are coping with life under lockdown” →

A Letter From Wartime France

Streets that are normally busy, all of a sudden aren’t.

At noon today, as France slipped into confinement, I looked down from my balcony at the street below. A few people were riding bikes or walking. At the tobacconist next to the closed café, a woman was wiping down the door frame. The street is normally busy, and all of a sudden it wasn’t. For the next two weeks, and likely longer, we cannot go out except for urgent reasons: food, medicine, or essential work. A nationwide lockdown, enforced by police. “We are at war,” French President Emmanuel Macron said six times in a speech yesterday evening. “The enemy is there—invisible, elusive—and it is advancing.”

Macron is right. COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has killed thousands and will likely kill thousands more, a tsunami that doctors have been warning will overwhelm the health-care system, as it’s already doing in neighboring Italy, the country hardest hit by this virus after China. This weekend, the government ordered all restaurants, cafés, and retail stores closed in France.

And finally, last night, Macron followed Italy and Spain—but not Britain or the United States—and mandated confinement to slow the exponential spread of the virus. Overnight, Macron, who was elected on a fluke and has faced popular revolts and flagging popularity, has become a war president.

We are at war. How strange to hear those words in Europe in 2020. It’s impossible, here in Paris, not to think of the Second World War. Not since Continue reading “A Letter From Wartime France” →

For Bert Jansch: Pascal Froissart “Veronica”

For Around the World in 80 Plays, Pascal chose to play Veronica. “Every time I play it, I can hear the whole rhythmic section of the Pentangle. It shows how much Bert contributed to the Pentangle’s music by providing a structure very close to jazz. It reminds me of John Coltrane’s quartet with McCoy Tyner in the early 60s.” #ForBertJansch #AroundTheWorldin80Plays #80PlaysForBert  Musicians around the globe are saluting Bert Jansch, the legendary guitarist and singer song-writer who would have turned 75 in November 2018.

The Bert Jansch Foundation is sending a special guitar, the Yamaha TransAcoustic – the latest incarnation of Bert’s favoured L series – across continents from artist to artist, enabling musicians to connect with his timeless music and enduring legacy. See who is taking the guitar on the next stage of its journey at https://80plays.bertjanschfoundation….

COVID-19: France, Spain Shut Down; California Asks Wineries to Stop Tastings 

As COVID-19 cases exponentially increase in the U.S. and Western Europe, leaders impose rules on restaurants and bars in effort to decrease infection rates

Across the United States and Western Europe this past weekend, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to grow, spurring leaders to impose new restrictions to attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Less than a week after Italy’s government shut down almost all schools and businesses, asking citizens to self-quarantine, France and Spain followed suit.

Continue reading “COVID-19: France, Spain Shut Down; California Asks Wineries to Stop Tastings “ →

Leave Me Alone

By: Michael Stevenson | Pas de Merde

At our family dinner at my sister’s, we sang the single most horrible song of the Seventies, which is Helen Reddy’s “Ruby Red Dress” – a singalong about a homeless woman who talks to herself and just wants to be left alone, due to the trauma she experienced as a younger woman.
Sing along, if you wish:

“Big ole ruby red dress wanders round the town
Talkin’ to herself now, sometimes sitten down
Don’t you get too close now, ruby runs away
Poor ole ruby red dress born on a sorry day
I can hear her say
Leave me alone, won’t you leave me alone
Please leave me alone now, leave me alone
Leave me alone, please leave me alone, yes leave me
Leave me alone won’t you leave me alone