Who knows @Eddie, who knows? That’s one of the great questions of our time.
So do you know why you don’t see a need for a massive rush
As with many things (smoking, alcohol, driving too fast, etc) “it will never happen to me”…
How are things “nearly normal”? More shops and businesses are open in France. But bars, cafés, restaurants, cinemas and theatres are closed. Nobody can go to a sporting fixture. Masks have to be worn everywhere. If, as has been said, France has a greater capacity in the Health Service to cope with illness, is the country adopting something of a laissez-faire approach. I think Johnson tried something similar, and a lot of people wish he had adopted his current position.
I do worry BUT as little as possible - I have no choice but to go off to work every day, I take the precautions we have to take and get on with it, realistically worrying will get me nowhere, obviously I hope I don’t get covid and do what is necessary, but I’m not going to give myself ulcers on the off chance. No amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth on my part is going to make the slightest difference so why waste time indulging in something that won’t do me any good and is tedious. There is no point wallowing in worry is there.
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People haven’t missed any school this academic year, lectures are on, prépa is as usual, cafés and restaurants are doing take-away, you can go shopping, for walks, see people etc, yes it is a pity about theatres & museums etc but you can watch matches on television, there’s a pandemic on for goodness’ sake, what else do you want, egg in your beer?
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This is EXACTLY my view @vero, thank you for expressing it better than I ever could! I chose not to engage with some of the comments as they were so ridiculous they weren’t worth commenting on.
We’re all worried, but taking to this forum is not going to get the attention of Mr Macron to send someone round to mine tomorrow with a vaccine as great a forum as it is! We all have to wait our turn and I have no influence at all over when that turn will be, and unlike you, I can’t even make my voice heard at the ballot box when the time comes to give my opinion on the rollout. So we just do the best we can to maintain a normal(-ish) life, go to work, do what we have to do, and try to make the best of the situation.
Personally I just try to make the best of whatever situation I’m handed, so as far as I’m concerned life goes on as much as it can, which doesn’t mean to say I don’t take precautions or have a “it will never happen to me” attitude, I just choose to focus on the things I have in my control to influence, rather than a vaccine program that I can do nothing about, and am certainly not going to get myself into a tizzy about something I can do nothing at all about.
I’m just looking forward to the entire country getting the vaccine then a variant arriving meaning we all have to get another 
Then the moaning can start again 
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You have a very strange sense of humour (and obviously haven’t had personal experience of the virus)
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Speaking very personally, I don’t feel frightened of covid at all, and I honestly don’t know why - possibly because I came through cancer a few years ago, possibly because I’ve never been very risk-averse, possibly because the number of cases in our commune is still… wait for it… ZERO!
I follow the sensible precautions - indeed I’m thinking of carrying on some, like mask-wearing, even after the pandemic - I haven’t had as much as a cold for over a year, so something is working well!
But I agree with Kirstea and Véronique - the preoccupation with covid in general and obsession with vaccination in particular (especially, I suspect, among those in the UK or seeing mainly UK media) is tiresome. I actually don’t rate Macron very highly - he is a dead ringer for Tony Blair, isn’t he? - but I don’t think he has done a bad job with covid - therefore personally I’d like to see the discussion move on to other policy areas instead of continually circling around the same old obsessive points (often repeated from other threads anyway).
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Cumulative Covid-19 cases in France now exceeds the UK.
Macron was advised in January to lockdown yet he dithered and delayed until he was faced with the inevitable last week. It will now be months before things improve enough to re-open bars, restaurants, cinemas etc and it’s hard to see this summer being any better than last year as regards tourism. I’d like to think that he was trying to keep the economy bumping along rather than have one eye on next year’s election but am not convinced.
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Spot on Tim. The time to lockdown was from about mid- January for four to six weeks imo. This would have bought time until the vaccine roll- out would have happened with less disruption.
Best to have closed the economy then rather than spring or summer. Macron missed the boat and I bet he regrets it now.
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Could that be because it is the Breton variant that doesn’t show up on PCR tests?
I don’t think he does, Peter, and I don’t think the majority of French people want to be confined either (including me). He is walking a very fine line and perhaps we’ll all end up being confined again but for the moment I’m happy with the way things are being managed. Once more vaccines arrive then things will gradually improve, admittedly we’re a long way off UK vaccination rates but pretty much in line with the rest of continental Europe.
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Agree. I also think he may well have hoped the vaccine would roll out faster which would make his approach more likely to work.
The other aspect that I keep harping on about is education, I like the fact that France has given this more priority and tried to keep schools open as much as possible.
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2 classes at my lycée now closed, wondering what next -
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Not quite in same league, but granddaughter has hardly been to school for a year. Even when school open her class was closed a number of times. So she has lost about 30% of her education and social learning so far (at only 7 years old).
Which is well behind what it should have been.
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Are you happy with things as they are because, I guess, you are largely unaffected? In fact, I imagine the buralistes are much better off than in normal times, especially those anywhere near Andorre or the Spanish frontier. Sorry if this sounds a bit accusatory.
No, Ronald, that’s fine, a spade is a spade 
We’re pretty much the same as normal as far as business is concerned and all the other commerçants around me don’t want another confinement. Kids are far better at school than at home too. No I’m not ecstatic with the situation, far from it, but I prefer how it’s being handled here to what I’ve heard about the UK. For the majority of French people outside the confinement areas (and all before they were confined) life goes on pretty much as normal. At last they’re talking about big vaccination centres being set up but need to get vaccines delivered too. Should be better next month… peut-être… on verra !
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