Times change.
There was new legislation passed a couple of years ago to increase the number of compulsory inoculations for babies, it has caused a fair bit of controversy and resistance and I imagine the authorities now wish to be seen to be checking /testing/ evaluating in order not to mess up eg the way they did with the blood and hgh scandals.
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Jean Castex has asked vaccination centres to stay open at weekends.
Why the hell has he got to do that and why is the Government still playing at this vaccination programme?
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Jane, it’s not the UK and things are done differently, most people still don’t want to be vaccinated anyway, and that includes many health professionals. We’ll get there in the end but most of us are going about our daily lives pretty much as before “métro boulot dodo”. France has been hit far less than the UK and so the measures are and have been different too, from what I’ve heard (no UK media input here, not got it or the time to go looking for it!). I think everyone here is far better off here than in the UK regardless of being vaccinated or not. 
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The problem is that cases are going up not down Andrew.
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Well, thanks to those of you who answered me directly, and very generous Tory for your offer, but if my experience online is anything to go by, it would not be one little phone call. Surely phoning can’t be so much more effective than online contact and on some days I have made contact with around 30 odd centres without success. The only way I can think of which would make a phone call more effective is the fact that you have a person ‘imprisoned’ on the other end so can’t give your rdv away to someone else while you answer all the questions, something that has happened to me on no less than 3 occasions online.
Again, many thanks for the advice and offer, but I could get my neighbour to make a call for me, she doesn’t speak English but that is no problem because I speak French, face to face. But the thought of her having to make multiple calls involving waits on the line puts me off somewhat.
I’ll give it some time to see if anything comes from my contact with the surgery receptionist yesterday. 
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The seven day average deaths is higher in France than the UK
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Fair enough David. I might well have just struck lucky, getting through by telephone … and only attempted it at all… since all the sites/diaries online were marked as “full for several weeks… please try later”
I’m waiting to hear when I can get jabbed… might be able to have it at my own Doc now… but I’m not pushing as we are in a good/safe situation and there are others whose needs are greater than mine… (glad OH is booked in though as he does have serious health problems)
And some of us most definitely are not. I realise some of you have no option but to go about your daily lives as if all is well. There are others of us who dearly would like to do so.
For me, it will not be enough to be vaccinated, I need the great majority of those around me to also be vaccinated, otherwise my life will continue to be very much not as before.
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As I said, no idea what is happening in the uk apart from the fact that they’re still confined. Not saying things are perfect here either just that I’m glad I’m here not there
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not arguing… just mentioning that from what I’ve heard/read we will still have to continue with the current precautions… even once we’re vaccinated… until more is known…
Covid et al… it’s a learning curve… rather steep and definitely rocky… 
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Vaccination and protective measures are the best we’ve got at the moment but I think this could be a game changer and that it’s here to stay just like flu. People at risk will probably need two injections each autumn; the latest flu and covid vaccines.
Sue, life isn’t as it was before but not far off for us and our kids. After a year we’ve learnt to live with it but the working environment, all the measures we have to ensure and the disputes/arguements we have with customers make it far more hassle! I hope the vaccines will sort this all out, I’m a little unsure but wil go with it when it’s my turn, depending on which vaccine they want to give me: nobody seems to want the astrazeneca one here and they’ve now stopped using it in South Africa saying it’s only 20% effective against their new strain and as that strain is now here in France you can understand why people don’t want it.
France’s youth are suffering terribly and are effectively paying the price for protecting the older generation and fragile people which is why that part of the population is being vaccinated first to try and free up the hospitals. Now we can concentrate on the early retirees and then slightly younger and so on. We’ll get there
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Me too. The problem of getting past the multi-option intro message usually has me fall at the first. They are, if not actually gabbled, like the safety announcement on planes, usually rattled off at a pace I can’t follow.
I have to get an RDV with the dermatology dept at St Lo. The doc wrote the number on a Post-It stuck to the referal letter but Plan A is to simply blunder in and start from “What the hell are you doing here?”
It worked at CPAM - tho’ they were actually very nice about me winging it.
When I phoned, the message simply said… your call will be answered in “3” minutes and it was… no press this or press that…
and I’m not sure you’ll find the PlanA works… not with covid… but I could be wrong… good luck, anyway
Was that a hospital or a doc’s surgery?
And small (and not so small?) children 
Isn’t covid. Dermatology, not virology/immunology
Hi… I phoned the number shown on santé fr list of places to get “stabbed”
It was a hospital as it happens, but I assume it was a dedicated covid contact number that they give as I wasn’t transferred to anyone else, just dealt with straight away by the person answering…
generally, phoning hospitals you get through to the switchboard who then move you on to wherever… (at least that’s been my experience)
I merely was wondering aloud if it will work with the strict extra precautions put in place due to covid…
no probs… you give it a go… nothing to lose
It is a very long time since I encountered a switchboard as first port of call in any large company/office/institution. I would be delighted to speak to a person, first off.
Are you a retired person? Surely if so you can organise your life as you wish, do interesting online courses, go out during the day, protect yourself or not however you like? I really don’t think it is impossible to fill one’s time and enjoy life even under the current circs.
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