“French cafes, restaurants, cinemas and other cultural venues and businesses that have been closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic will reopen in several stages from May 19,” writes Clare Byrne in Thursday’s (4/29) Agence-France Presse. “Museums, theatres, cinemas and concert halls will reopen on May 19, along with non-essential shops and outdoor seating at cafes and restaurants, [said] President Emmanuel Macron…. Cafes and restaurants will have to wait until June 9, however, to be allowed to serve clients indoors, he added. Macron also gave a timetable for lifting an unpopular night-time curfew which has turned French cities into ghost towns after 7:00 pm.… France is nearing the end of a third national lockdown imposed to try and tame a severe third wave of infections. … The number of new cases reported daily has fallen in the past month, from around 40,000 to 27,000 on average over the past week…. Primary schools reopened on Monday after a three-week shutdown, with secondary schools to follow suit next week…. The French had been particularly anxious to know when the cafes and museums, which have been closed since October 30, would reopen.”
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