TPAYT

How are the restaurants and cafes coping with Covid?
Anyone have any photos of outside cafes and social distancing?

kerouac

In areas where Parisians always go such as Les Halles/Montorgueil, Bastille, Bassin de la Villette, etc., the cafés are as jam packed as the current rules allow and sometimes look even more so with all of the extra outdoor tables in the street and sometimes even across the street. Cafés in areas that attract tourists, such as the Champs Elysées, Saint Germain-des-Prés or boulevard des Capucines/Opéra are not doing as well. And many neighborhood cafés are in terrible shape, as evidenced by my own area. Parisians still like to go out, but they don't really want to hang out in their own neighborhood for a coffee or a beer right now. The big café (just renovated) right across from my apartment decided to close for the month of August, something which it has never done before. And a number of small cafés never reopened.

Lois2

good question asked here. I can't help but fast forward for the restaurants that might be surviving with outside tables right now but when weather changes knowing the indoor size and configuration of tables doubt too many will want to be inside....so many are small and cramped..not much ventilation etc. I hate to say but the real challenge of Covid may well be fall winter...hoping for the best and vaccine.

kerouac

Speaking of winter, this is the last season during which outdoor heating will be permitted. In line with recommendations by the citizens' environmental committee, the government has decreed that outdoor heating at cafés and restaurants is banned. A few cities in France had already taken that decision, but this will cover the entire country.

Lois2

Boy they might want to re-think that one at least for this year...extending outdoor could be a really good thing this year. Kerouac why is that a problem...maybe it has been discussed but this is news to me. In fact I was think more would install it all over the world.

kerouac

They HAVE rethought if for this year, which is why these places can still do it this winter, until the end of March 2021. But those big butane heaters are wasteful and environmentally destructive, so they have to go. People were never meant to bask in warmth outside in the dead of winter. Another aspect of the new law is that air conditioned establishments will have to keep their doors closed in the summer instead of blasting cold air outside. Do you think this is unreasonable?

Meanwhile, we are reaching the end of the grace period for supermarkets with their refrigerator and freezer cases. The date must be very close because my Chinese supermarket is an a frenzy to change all of its equipment as quickly as possible. Refrigerator and freezer cases must be closed with doors. This saves about 50% of energy consumption. France is going green at last.

Lois2

i would agree with all the moves but the timing on the heaters was not good...one more year.

Christina

I don't see why one more year would be necessary. That's a shame, though, as I love those in the Fall, but I understand the issues.

I've seen various photos of the current cafe scene, such as it is. I subscribe to several French publications and read a couple French newspapers, online, though. So I've seen photos in some of those. Mostly you see the waiters masked and lots of other folks maskless. Not really much social distancing, sometimes tables a little farther apart.

here are some
https://www.voanews.com/europe/what-...its-magic-back

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/w...now/index.html
notice waiter wearing mask as chin guard

https://www.france24.com/en/20200602...id-19-lockdown

https://www.paris.fr/pages/reouvertu...-terrasse-7847

https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/arti...2860_3234.html

https://www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/r...20-8328483.php
I see about one person wearing a mask above

This is kind of old news by now, so media isn't posting photos of it as news anymore, those were from when the rules changed in June.

Sarastro

There is no requirement to wear a mask when sited at either a restaurant or café. It would make eating and drinking a very sloppy business. Waiters or those walking among tables must wear masks.

To help compensate for loss of revenues, the city has allowed restaurants to expand onto the sidewalks and streets. Normally, sidewalk tables are taxes by the city which is why businesses must financially justify an expansion of this type. However, with inside space lost to distancing requirements, outside expansion has given some establishments more tables than ever before and taxes on sidewalk use have been suspended through the end of September. Restaurants expanding into parking spaces fits well within the mayors plan to remove street parking as well as traffic lanes and convert them to bicycle use.

In my area of Paris, broadly between les Invalids and le Jardin du Luxembourg, many, many business have closed and numerous hotels never reopened. St Germain des Près has been particularly effected as it is very popular with the now missing American tourists.

We should expect the retail/hotel/restaurant landscape of Paris to continue to change as the financial impact of the virus is not yet fully known.

TPAYT

Hello to Sarastro and all our ParisIan FODORITES. Thanks for all the news from those who live in Paris.

We had hoped to return this year for another Christmas visit but that probably isn’t going to happen.
As the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. And that certainly is true as the anticipation
builds toward travel.

scrb11

You can't use masks but those tables are close together and you know people are chatting up a storm.

In that first picture people were indoors, sitting right next to each other, with some of the people older and heavier.

Duration of exposure is a problem. This is where the French and European cafe culture may be conducive to infections.

kerouac

The current French social distance is one meter. Older and heaier people have not been banned from cafés and restaurants. Do you think they should be, scrb11? As for chatting up a storm, that"s one of the reasons that people go to these places.

What do you suggest the we should do instead of what we are doing, particularly compared to your own country?

Sarastro

Restaurants have significantly increased table separation. Outside space has been greatly enlarged. Every effort is being made to control spread. No one is forced to eat in restaurants he might consider unsafe.

On the whole, France has made a very comprehensive effort to mitigate virus spread. As of this morning, masks must be worn outdoors in many locations in Paris. Government response has been comprehensive and, when need, enhance to protect the public. Not all national governments have displayed the same urgency to respond to the threat in an equally bold and decisive manner.

kerouac

Unfortunately, the virus is still spreading more than expected. Among things that are becoming likely are a national mandate to require masks everywhere outdoors. Also under consideration is tracking everybody in every café and restaurant such as other countries have done. This would not be obligatory, but every customer would be requested to provide a contact number in case a case of covid was detected in the establishment. Some people think this goes too far, but personally I wonder why.

menachem

Yesterday was at a local cafe/buffet restaurant we go to a lot. Dutch gov has made those lists compulsory, but forgot to indicate how restaurants and cafes should implement them. So, my local cafe had an exercise book open on the counter and asked its patrons to enter full name and telephone number. The barista was making my coffee with her back turned towards me. In that stretch of time, I could have photographed many pages, containing people's full name and (mostly) cellphone #.

The better way is: give out pre printed contact slips to diners, have them fill it out, securely store the slips for 14 days, then throw them out.

Tulips

I've seen restaurants take contact info online; you scan a QR code and fill out the info on the restaurant site.
Others leave a piece of paper to fill out, ask you to write your name on the paper menu (that they only use once) or take down our name/nr when you enter.

I don't understand why you would object. If you book a table you give your contact info anyway.

ldatt22

Sad that some are not reopening. I'm guessing they lost money.

menachem

In NL women have been called on the cellphones by wait staff. Cellphone numbers are often the numbers people use in 2 factor authentication for online services, and often cell numbers are used as user ID's. In the example I cited, I had an entire page with people's first and last names, their address and their cellphone numbers.

When I went there last friday, they had their book open on a separate table, entirely out of sight for bar staff for DIY registering.

NorenePalmer

It's sad to hear that many businesses have closed.

scrb11

France isn't faring too well.

One of the most common vectors of transmission has been indoor dining and drinking. UK is trying to impose restrictions on pubs.

France and Spain both ruled out reimposing lockdowns and now cases are surging in both countries.

But as in the US in the summer, most of the new cases are coming from young adults. They're not getting hospitalized or dying in high numbers but they're very effective spreaders. Consider that early on most of the fatalities were older people in retirement facilities, where they were infected by the much younger staff.

That is why you can't simply say "oh it's okay, it's mostly young people getting infected now and they will survive it."