Are you familiar with the French president? Probably so, but if not, let me introduce you, because he is quite a character, with an interesting backstory. And he did something last week which I consider to be amazingly courageous.
Not everyone is a fan of course, but we are big admirers. He is handsome, elegant, articulate, the youngest President in French history, and sly as a fox. His English is excellent. One journalist who spent a week with him for an article, said, “He could charm a chair.” After all, he did seduce his high school teacher when he was 15 years old, who was 24 years his senior, and who eventually left her husband to marry him. He and Brigitte have been married 14 years, and by all reports he is a good step-father to her three children (who are sort of his age). He founded his own centrist political party En Marche (roughly, “on the move”, or “let’s get working”).
So about that courageous act. The Delta variant is hitting us all hard again, but no western world leader has, as far as I know, definitively required the population to get the vaccine. In France, there plenty of anti-vaxxers, mostly not duped by conspiracies like in the States, but instead they are more often holistic types who worry about the health effects of Covid vaccines (but not Covid, the disease! Go figure).
So the Prez took a different tact.You don’t have to get the vaccine, he said, but he decreed that if you want to go to a bar or a restaurant or a concert or a movie, it’s required. Or to get on a bus, plane, or train, or to visit any cultural attraction. And the French, as you might imagine, are quite attached to their restos and cafés, not to mention their trains and leisure activities.
Here’s the joke circulating in France on Twitter. Two Frenchmen talking:
—You getting the vaccine?
—No way.
—You could die.
—I don’t give a $*#*!
—You can’t go to a restaurant.
—Right arm or left?
Macron revealed his new program in a televised speech. There is one central site in France to book vaccines, and appointments had been waning; But before his speech was over they were booking 20,000 appointments a MINUTE, briefly overwhelming the site. The next day, they set a record: a million appointments in one day.
The French often surprise me with their cleverness. This is one of those times. World leaders, take note! Maybe you can't require the vaccine, but you can sure make it uncomfortable not to get it.
In the COMMENTS:Debbie, there could be no more beautiful place for a passeggiata than St Jean. Unless it’s the romantic Verona, Michaela, where we’ve done a bit of strolling too. Natalia, hope you can keep up your flaneur-ing. Marilyn needs a Dijon hotel recommendation and activities, does anyone have some to share?
Favorite READS: My friend Athlyn loaned me her copy of The Only Street in Paris, Life on the Rue des Martyrs, by Elaine Sciolino, about one woman's life in the heart. Warning: Do not read unless you're planning a trip to Paris, or you may have to jump on a plane.
