An Italian couple tested positive for the coronavirus in San Juan, Puerto Rico, late on Friday after they disembarked from the cruise ship. Costa Cruises, an Italian subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corp., says the ship is now heading to Marseilles, France.
But the closing of restaurants and cafes in France, major elements of the country’s symbolic heart, is certain to bring the crisis home to the average French person in a way that nothing has so far. Even the closing of museums and major tourist attractions, announced Friday, don’t compare.
Commentators on French television Saturday night noted that even during the German occupation, bars and restaurants stayed open.
On Saturday night, a Paris reveler, Clémence Jamult, a 39-year-old history teacher, said the closures meant “the end of a very French way of life.”
“It’s a special moment,” she added. Others said it was inevitable.
“It’s a little sad to come to this, but it’s a necessary decision,” said Ms. Noaillon, the bartender, adding that French people were barely respecting the rules of “social distancing” urged on them by the government earlier in the week.
Adam Nossiter reported from Paris, and Raphael Minder and Elian Peltier reported from Madrid. Benjamin Mueller contributed reporting from in London, and Constant Meheut and Aurelien Breeden from Paris and Zolan Kanno-Youngs from Washington D.C.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/world/europe/france-coronavirus.html
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