Day 1,052 (Sunday) 26^th April 2020

Day 41 and it was sunbathing weather in the morning but it clouded over after lunch so I was forced indoors. Huw did some more work on the bedroom door and got a lot of help from Badger.

We went for our hour walk through the park where we dug up some soil to re-pot one of my flowers. We walked up to the top road past the Hotel Versailles again and down the many steps to La Darse and we stopped to admire this gorgeous garden.

We then walked through the citadel again and then down to the beach. We were running out of time and we were disappointed to see that we hadn’t met our 3km target, just 2.8km.

Huw re-potted the flower and Badger was fascinated. As soon as Huw finished Badger pounced on it, knocking it over and then rolled about in the earth.

Sorry about all the cat photos today but he really makes us laugh a lot and he is a great help through this lockdown.

Speaking of the lockdown I found this article last night and this is what we are to expect in the near future…

Roads have been largely empty since March 17^th.

While international travel is still heavily restricted, travelling from one part of France to another could be allowed when lockdown ends on May 11^th, the president has suggested. A more concrete plan for the end of lockdown will be revealed next week.

After a video call with mayors and local government officials, the Elysées Palace has laid out more details of the easing of lockdown restrictions in France, although stressed that these were still "options on the table".

A more concrete plan is set to be unveiled next Tuesday.

As well as announcing that parents will not be forced to send their children back to school as they reopen, statements from French president Emmanuel Macron's office also touched on the subject of travel around France.

At present all non-essential travel is banned with only trips out of the home for work or to go to local shops or health centres allowed.

But from May 11^th the country will start to be gradually reopened, with schools reopening and many employees returning to work.

The Elysée has made it clear that the déconfinement (ending of lockdown) will be done on a national basis, not region by region as some had predicted.

Although local authorities will still be allowed some leeway if there is a particular local need.

According to French media the Elysées Palace also added that "the president is working to ensure that there will be no problem moving from one region to another after May 11^th".

The Elysée told The Local that the issue of travel between regions was still under discussion and no final decision had been taken.

There had been much speculation and suggestions from ministers that travel around France would remain restricted until the middle of June, to avoid any spread of the virus to areas that had so far been largely spared.

The Elysée has come under fire in some sections of the French media for its strategy on releasing the details about how the lockdown will end which have often been contrary to what his own ministers and health chiefs have said. 

On Thursday Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the end of lockdown would not mean "the ability to travel anywhere, anytime."

And on the same day the country's Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon said: "What will have to be avoided are inter-regional transport and exchanges of population between massively affected areas and less affected areas, (or) this is how we will reactivate the circulation of the virus.

"It is an attitude that we must have during deconfinement, to be very attentive to interregional flows."

The travel rules will be particularly relevant to the thousands of Parisians who fled the capital at the start of the lockdown to their second homes in the country - it is estimated that the city's population has fallen by 24 percent during the lockdown.

The déconfinement will take place on a "national basis", "which does not prevent local and territorial adaptations", adds the Elysée.

Coronavirus cases have not been evenly distributed around France, with the eastern French region of Grand Est and the greater Paris Île-de-France region having far more cases than the rest of the country.

But with around 30 percent of France's GDP concentrated in Paris, there was also economic pressure to reopen the region around the capital.

On the subject of the resumption of public transport, Macron said: "it would be necessary to give a health and organisational specification for the resumption of public transport" but also "rules of distancing" and "probably impose the wearing of masks in public transport".

At present the various ministries are putting together their own plans, which will be gathered into a national plan to be debated by the French Parliament at the start of May.

Once that has happened a more detailed plan for the lifting of lockdown can be released.

On a much lighter note – enjoy this hilarious video.