Dear subscribers, hello,
Never stingy with good news, I am announcing that this weekend of August 1 will be one of the worst of the year in terms of road traffic: many of you will be taking the road towards the beaches and countryside of France ( 70% of holidaymakers). The editorial director of Figaro Étienne de Montety has no intention of playing the pooper but given the health context, he calls for going on vacation with "sunscreen, prudence and common sense".
Note that I will be absent next week, due to leaving for Brittany (in Loire-Atlantique precisely, so in Brittany). My colleague Rozenn Morgat will write the Letters from August 3 to 7.
Good reading!
Ronan Planchon, journalist at Le Figaro
• Featured
Masks, tests ... the strange holidays of the French
Members of the French civic service inform holidaymakers of the social distancing rules to be observed on the beach of Argelès-sur-Mer, July 24, 2020 near Perpignan. RAYMOND ROIG / AFP
“70% of French people take their vacation this summer” . And among them, 70% will not go far. Covid-19 obliges, the French have finally convinced themselves that their landscapes are the most beautiful - this is always what the Germans will not have. So they invade our coasts, rush to the countryside to escape the crowded beaches and the ambassadors of distancing on the sand making sure that you don't stick your towel to that of the neighbor, or (re) discover working on the farm thanks to the agriturismo - a holiday that does not have the advantage of leaving you alone. Unlike in previous years, the hinterland is no longer scorned, Drôme and Lozère have succeeded in proving to the French that their lands are worth seeing. Note that if you go through Quiberon, Saint-Malo, Bayonne (where the holidays are canceled to the chagrin of the locals) or Laval, you must wear a mask in the streets. Scientists are not convinced of the usefulness of this measure, except in special cases.
Read also: In the Arcachon basin, the virus is tracked down to the beach
The smartest parents will understand that the key to a calm and peaceful vacation is to delegate the education of their toddlers. To supervisors in scout camps or recreation centers, where summer is all about barrier gestures and non-contact activities. To grandparents delighted to be delegated this task - as long as it lasts only a time - even if for that, it is necessary this year to do without hugs.
→ It will be very hot from this Friday. If you are a fragile person or have some around you, it is advisable to ventilate the interior without using a fan. This can help spread the virus.
• The editorial
Holidays and Covid-19: "Caution and common sense"
Étienne de Montety. Le Figaro
“Holidays, I forget everything”, that old dance floor refrain that alone sums up the contemporary summer mentality, is more out of date this year than ever: the Covid has been there.
For half a century, like a ritual, the vacationer, as he changes horizon, also changes behavior, forgetting the constraints, clothing and schedules. Sociologists have written a lot about this phase when modern man is metamorphosed under the effect of the sun and sea water.
It is in this context that the reiterated appeals of the political and health authorities intervene for wisdom. They hammer out words that have become saws for the French: "barrier gestures", "social distancing".
However, it is clear that in the July sun, the sententious recommendations are difficult to impose. A second wave, why not, but on a surf spot… It's obvious, when you smell the air of the holidays, how can you imagine that it is encumbered by a virus?
So, is this speech adapted to the seaside lifestyle, especially for young people? The recklessness of this age has difficulty accommodating the security measures that have punctuated our lives for five months. In shorts, barriers like masks fall easily. Should we be alarmed?
We will not get lost in the exegesis of the countless analyzes and recommendations made since the Covid appeared. Are they fair, indispensable, excessive, late? It will be up to specialists and historians to say so. For now, what behavior to take on a daily basis?
We will just remember that if the holidays are the time of relaxation, they are not that of unconsciousness. All serious people know that going out to sea, or going to the mountains, requires precautions. Freedom is not the enemy of responsibility.
This motto may very well guide everyone's conduct: let's go on vacation with in our luggage, in addition to sunscreen, prudence and common sense.
• The big interview
“Loving France is necessary to put an end to what is pulling it to the bottom. To love it is to believe in the possibility of giving it back its luster with what made its greatness, ”says Michel Onfray. Philip Conrad / Photo12 via AFP
Michel Onfray: “French evil is first and foremost self-hatred on which almost everything depends” - We all hate at least one thing in life. Some, endives. Others, their in-laws. Michel Onfray, he has an aversion for the European Union, a "construction of this American Europe wanted by the CIA" . He even hates her more than the media sphere (that is to say!) Of which he keeps a bitter memory when his book on Freud came out. In this fascinating interview conducted by Vincent Trémolet, we also (above all) discover that this left sovereignist is a fervent Proudhonian because “ his socialism did not displease the right because he was pragmatic” and “he does not subscribe to the ideology of progress ”, prefers de Gaulle to Mitterrand, and sweeps away the idea of one day becoming the “ water carrier ” of a political party.
• Information to know this morning
Coronavirus: The number of patients in intensive care increases for the first time since April 8 - 16 patients with the coronavirus have died in hospitals in France in the last 24 hours. The number of serious cases in intensive care has increased from 380 to 381. [Read more]
Orleans: a minor arrested for hitting a bus driver who claimed to wear a mask - The victim was prescribed four days of ITT due, in particular, to an eye injury. [Read more]
Anglet: "very serious" forest fire, residents evacuated - About one hundred hectares of pine forest were devastated by flames, five people were victims of poisoning related to smoke, and at least seven homes were affected, three of which were damaged. completely burnt. [Read more]
Electricity, gas, conversion bonus ... What changes on August 1 - Four notable changes are to be reported from tomorrow. Here is what you need to know. [Read more]
• Must-read articles
Jean-Dominique Senard, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Renault group. Jean-Christophe MARMARA / Le Figaro
Jean-Dominique Senard: "The results are very bad, but Renault will find its place" - We would have to invent a new expression to talk about the Diamond: "When I look at myself, I feel sorry. When I compare myself ... I feel even more sorry ” , Renault has lost 7.3 billion euros in the last six months while PSA has posted a profit of 595 million euros. You therefore understand why the manufacturer will cut in its workforce, it is a question of "survival of the company", says the chairman of the board of directors at Le Figaro. The rest, Jean-Dominique Senard does not know, but "decisions will be taken by December" to redress the bar.
Grafenwöhr, that village in Bavaria that doesn't want to see its GIs leave - They are smiling, courteous, kind, and, which doesn't take anything away, spend tons of money in German restaurants and shops. A little too much besides, to the taste of Donald Trump who has planned to repatriate 12,000 of the 36,000 American soldiers present in Germany for accounting reasons. Our correspondent on the other side of the Rhine, Pierre Avril, went to Grafenwöhr, near the largest military camp in Europe, where the inhabitants fear that these sympathetic soldiers will leave. And their wallet.
The modest triumph of Emmanuel Besnier - You could call him the Bernard Arnault of Camembert. Emmanuel Besnier is the head of the eleventh professional fortune in France, but unlike the CEO of LVMH, no one knows the boss of Lactalis. If he planned to come out of the shadows one day, the health “ scandal ” or rather, according to him, the “ crisis ” of 2018 (38 babies were contaminated with salmonella) definitely convinced him to follow suit. letter the expression "to live happily live hidden ". Charles Jaigu succeeded in extracting some secrets from him.
End of mission for Admiral Rogel - The Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic has slept little over the past four years, he was associated with all international meetings, European meetings, all calls from the head of state and had to make himself available 24 hours a day in case of emergency. Before making his boxes, Admiral Rogel confided to Nicolas Barotte his concern to see multilateralism crumbling and recognized a "collective fault" on the crisis in Libya.
Dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika ... The invasion of tiger mosquitoes, a health risk for France - We also said to ourselves that we had not had a health problem for a long time. In 2004, there were zero tiger mosquitoes in mainland France, sixteen years later, 58 departments out of 96 are "colonized" by these insects capable of transmitting around thirty viruses, explains our journalist Claire-Line Nass. MEPs are not very optimistic: they believe that the tiger mosquito could become a "major health risk" in the coming decades. And good weekend!
• The Friday photo
Crabeater seals in Antarctica. Greg Lecoeur
In Le Figaro Magazine, the virtuoso of naturalist photography Greg Lecoeur tells the story of this shot. “I was accompanying an expedition in which the famous freediver Guillaume Néry had set off in the footsteps of the sea leopard, one of the biggest predators on the blue planet. Around the island of Cuverville, we immersed ourselves in water at - 1 ° C when four crabeater seals invited us to a strange aquatic ballet. These imposing mammals measuring more than 3 meters are badly named because they feed exclusively on krill, these tiny shrimps that shelter under icebergs. Fearful at first, but naturally curious, they approached us until they brushed against us. They are witnesses to the beauty and fragility of the Antarctic continent, the last virgin space that has not been colonized by man. ”
• A final quote
Lucie (his wife) and Raymond Aubrac, in 1997. Rue des Archives / Monier / Rue des Archives
July 31, 1914: birth of Raymond Aubrac, figure of the Resistance. Cofounder of the “South Liberation” movement, Raymond Aubrac was one of the last Resistance figures to have known Jean Moulin. He was the last survivor of the leaders of the Resistance gathered and arrested in June 1943 in Caluire (Rhône) with the head of the National Council of the Resistance (CNR). He died in 2012.
From the first day, from the call of June 18, 1940 in which de Gaulle explained that the loss of a battle did not mean that we had lost the war, only one thing guided us: optimism, conviction that by making a commitment, we could make a difference
Raymond Aubrac
