Life in confinement: five witnesses tell

Jeanne, 15, pupil in second class, confined with her mother in Saint-Ouen (93).

With confinement, I get up later than usual because my high school is quite far from my home. It also leaves me a lot more time to play sports; I do exercises like sit-ups, push-ups and squats. I continue to have classes, we make video calls with the teachers, they send us documents by email and give us exercises to do; it doesn’t change much.

I’m living the confinement well for the moment, but that’s because it’s only been two days. Otherwise, not going out, it’s still not easy… Not seeing my friends and the rest of my family doesn’t bother me so much because we still talk to each other, but, normally, I like to go for walks Paris. In addition, the weather is nice right now, so it’s harder; it will quickly become heavy. Especially since I am preparing for the possibility that the confinement will last longer than the two weeks announced.

For now, even if the government allows residents to go out when it’s related to physical activity, I don’t prefer, to avoid the spread of the virus as much as possible. But it is true that if the confinement continues, I may do so.

Maïlys, 18, first-year engineering school student, confined with her mother and sister to Soisy-Sous-Montmorency (95).

The confinement does not change anything in my life, except that I no longer have to take transport to go to class and that I can no longer go to sport. Either way, it’s less difficult than I thought; it’s even nice not to travel three hours a day. Only the closure of the sports complexes is a bit hard for me.

I belong to a generation where everything is done by phone, so I’m already used to FaceTime my friends and talk to them via voicemail. It doesn’t make a big difference to me not seeing them. In addition, I do not feel the anxiety-provoking climate linked to the coronavirus because I do not know anyone at risk.

On the other hand, I am afraid that the confinement will be prolonged and that I will not be able to go to Brazil in July, as I had planned almost a year ago. I am also worried that the confinement will last a long time compared to my school year. My school treats the online classes we have daily as regular classes and intends to do the exams as if there is no difference. For me, it’s not the same thing at all. It may be quite penalizing and affect the notes.

Valentin, 27, energy consultant, confined with his two roommates in Paris.

For now, I’m not having a bad time with confinement because I’m lucky to have a terrace that allows me to get some fresh air and sunshine. With my roommates, we organized ourselves by setting up rules because we will have to stay together for a while in our apartment. For example, we divided up the household chores well, while trying to keep a little time for ourselves.

We do a lot of sports and meditation in the morning, then I continue to go running, with the derogatory travel certificate. We are all three in telework so it gives a start-up atmosphere to the apartment. It’s quite funny, everyone is on their computer in a different corner of the living room. So far, it’s going well.

I had to go and confine myself to my parents, to their house in Toulon. I had taken my train ticket but I canceled it the same morning because I was afraid of being a healthy carrier of the coronavirus and transmitting it to my parents. This is no longer the case today, but on Tuesday morning I felt the anxiety-provoking climate of confinement because we didn’t really know how it was going to happen, since it started at noon. There weren’t many people in the streets, the atmosphere was quite special. Now we understood that we were just going to stay at home for a few weeks and that everything would be fine.”

Zeynep, 47, in charge of purchases and markets, confined with her three children (respectively students in third, fifth, and CE2 class) and her husband in Soisy-sous-Montmorency (95).

For me, the stress of confinement comes mainly from the organization. The government wants to ensure the continuity of our children’s education, which is very good because it occupies their minds, but it has done it a little too quickly. This requires real daily logistics, in addition to managing telework and household chores. I have two children in college and one in elementary; it doesn’t stop. With my husband, we experience it as moral harassment.

My older children are still quite independent, but I have to make sure that they do things on time, and that they organize themselves in their schedule. Yesterday, I have a friend who cracked. She burst into tears on our moms support conversation group. You have to dive back into the lessons, replace the teacher to explain the exercises… It’s complicated, even for children. It weighs on them because it’s a bit long, tedious.

Despite everything, morale remains good. With my husband, we know that we will get there, but we would have liked a few days of adaptation, of introspection, so that we digest all the somewhat anxiety-provoking information of recent times and that we organize as best as possible with our children.

Pierre, 56, stock exchange clerk, confined alone to Clichy (92).

I live well the confinement, but it changes my habits a lot. Normally I don’t smoke on weekdays, but I couldn’t stop myself from lighting a cigarette yesterday during my coffee break. I had never teleworked before; although I like working alone, it’s not very comfortable. My company gave me a big computer screen, but I don’t have a real chair.

I will still walk 5 to 10 minutes a day but I can no longer go to the gym in the evening, so I will have to do exercises at home. Being confined is not disturbing; I’m used to living alone, not going out on weekdays and seeing my daughters only two to three times a month. However, I don’t think I really realize what is going on. I will surely be shocked this weekend to see that I can no longer go out to cafes, restaurants and bars, as I normally do.

I do not give in to the anxiety-provoking climate but I think the confinement will last at least a month. I’m also not stressed about the coronavirus. On the other hand, I’m thinking of going to see the police this weekend to ask them if I can take my car to go and walk for a few hours in the forest; It might be hard for me otherwise.