Amber is not going to celebrate New Year's Eve this Thursday evening "only two" with her lover and "missed" the first Christmas of her godson.
Lucie ends the year with the feeling that key moments in her young adult life have been stolen from her: "Not the impression of having passed the baccalaureate or of having been eighteen".
Nonna, 78, will only have had TV to liven up her evening.
The fear of Covid-19 pushed her to stay alone at home, far from her children and grandchildren.
Despite the illuminated balconies and the wreathed trees, this Christmas 2020 against the backdrop of an epidemic has obviously lost its magic.
Barrier gestures instead of tender gestures.
Surgical masks that hide smiles.
And these prevention messages that we would never have imagined on a festive evening, like the one delivered by the canton of Jura: “Christmas on the balcony, fewer viruses in my house”.
It is that a year after its appearance, the coronavirus has killed more than 1.7 million people on five continents and the fear of a third wave in France is obviously on everyone's mind.
2021 will be the year of vaccines
Especially when some of our neighbors have already decided to re-define themselves.
Or that Australia, cited as an example of good health management, is now facing a resurgence of cases in the north of Sydney.
Collateral victims of the new strain of the virus which appeared in Great Britain, thousands of European truck drivers, like the Polish Ezdrasz Szwaja, father of "two very small children", had to resolve to spend New Years Eve in their cabin.
Stuck around the port of Dover (Great Britain), they were still waiting this Thursday to be able to restart while the island is slowly emerging from its isolation.
But if we look at the glass half full, we can also say that 2021 will be the year of the vaccines - and therefore perhaps of the ebb of the epidemic - that the High Authority of Health has just authorized in France. .
The first patients will be vaccinated this Sunday.
Among the good news, we can also note that this crisis will have allowed the French to refocus on ... France.
As evidenced by the many holiday bookings this summer in France and the boom in lodgings in Brittany this week, full of families who have come to breathe and breathe the "fresh air" of the coast.
The Covid-19 has also awakened throughout the year, and even more so at Christmas, an unprecedented surge of solidarity.
Towards caregivers, towards our elders, towards small traders hard hit by the crisis and to whom we turned more to prepare for the holidays.
Faced with the increase in the feeling of loneliness linked to confinement (14% of French people suffer from loneliness in 2020 against 9% in 2010 according to the Solitudes Barometer of the Fondation de France), the leading French philanthropy network has supported around 100 New Years Eve solidarity.
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"The associations have not given up to support people in a situation of isolation and precariousness, greets Claire Boulanger, solidarity expert within the Foundation.
This crisis will at least have shown us how important it is to cultivate the bonds of solidarity between us ”.
And then the epidemic pushed some to invent new ways to get closer when contacts are now banned.
Like this Italian hospital which has set up a “hug curtain” for hospitalized children vulnerable to Covid.
Claudia was able to hug her son for the first time in two months.
"In their letter to Santa Claus, the children wrote that it was their greatest wish" confides the director of the establishment.
“Finishing my final year without having said goodbye to people in my class, continuing my studies at a distance, spending Christmas in a small group, yes, it's sad, admits Yohan, 18, from Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine) .
But we do all that to find each other better afterwards.
And once the Covid is behind us, the next Christmas will be even more magnificent ”.
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A brief overview of Christmases for the French which will be rather atypical ...
IN BRITTANY.
A coastline without a mask
The wind, the fresh air, and the ocean as far as the eye can see: Brittany was already gaining tourists between the two confinements, and this is still the case during these end-of-year celebrations, to say the least, particular .
"Here, it is with the swell, but without the crowd", play Maryse and Denis, a couple of Parisian sixties come to slip away at Christmas in love, near Landunvez (Finistère).
"We are certainly no longer very young, but he is diabetic and overweight among others," slips Maryse, nudging her husband affectionately.
“We had a lot of grandchildren to see, and we didn't really want to tempt the devil… so we took off.
We will do visios, as during confinement, too bad!
".
Like many other families, couples, or groups of friends, vacations are currently being done in small numbers on the Brittany coast.
If the vast majority come to join the family, several sites such as Gîtes de France or Pap Vacances note a real rush towards Morbihan and Finistère.
Rentals of all kinds have been taken by storm for several weeks.
Thierry, Sandra and their children treated themselves to an invigorating week for Christmas in Telgruc-sur-Mer (Finistère).
LP / Nora Moreau
The wind, the fresh air, and the ocean as far as the eye can see: Brittany was already gaining tourists between the two confinements, and this is still the case during these end-of-year celebrations, to say the least, particular .
"Here, it is with the swell, but without the crowd", play Maryse and Denis, a couple of Parisian sixties come to slip away at Christmas in love, near Landunvez (Finistère).
"We are certainly no longer very young, but he is diabetic and overweight among others," slips Maryse, nudging her husband affectionately.
“We had a lot of grandchildren to see, and we didn't really want to tempt the devil… so we took off.
We will do visios, as during confinement, too bad!
".
Like many other families, couples, or groups of friends, vacations are currently being done in small numbers on the Brittany coast.
If the vast majority come to join the family, several sites such as Gîtes de France or Pap Vacances note a real rush towards Morbihan and Finistère.
Rentals of all kinds have been taken by storm for several weeks.
This is evidenced by the very young Les Phares du Bout du Monde (Gîtes de France network) holiday homes in Telgruc-sur-Mer, on the Crozon peninsula (Finistère), run by Karine and her husband Jean-Marc.
All their houses are currently occupied and visitors from all over France.
Thierry (50 years old) and Sandra (46 years old) and their children Andréa (17 years old) and Killian (14 years old), they arrived Saturday from Angers (Maine-et-Loire) for a week in the great outdoors.
“In view of this gloomy atmosphere and the systematic wearing of the mask by us, we had decided to leave for Christmas.
We saw the local photos, and we fell in love right away - four hours away from home, it was the ideal compromise ”.
And Thierry added: "I did my military service right next door, in Brest, 30 years ago, and I absolutely wanted to come back and visit the surroundings".
The little family, who happily discover the peninsula and its superb panoramas and coastal paths, from Cap de la Chèvre to Camaret via the medieval village of Locronan, has already been won over.
Karine, the owner of the premises, confirms the enthusiasm for the region at the moment: “Here, absolutely everything has been rented, and requests continue to flow!
Once the 100 km deposit was lifted, we received almost exclusively people from other regions - rather north of the Loire.
In the off-season, it is often couples between 55 and 65, without dependent children, who really need to go out… without a mask, of course ”.
Some of their tenants are even starting to consider buying land in the area and, why not, moving there for good.
IN VISIO.
Kathleen and Jean Pierre "alone but not isolated"
Jean-Pierre and Kathleen will see their children and grandchildren through a Zoom./LP/Matthias Galante meeting
A chubby Santa Claus and a mini-tree take pride of place in the wine cellar in the living room of their elegant apartment in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes).
Katleen and Jean-Pierre Dreyfus are probably enjoying this setting a little more than usual this year: they have indeed decided, exceptionally, not to celebrate Christmas in the presence of their children and (big) grandchildren.
Because of the Covid-19 epidemic.
“Usually, we go to Toulon (Var) on the 25th to visit our youngest son.
We sleep at the hotel, then the next day, we are with our second son in Nice.
We made the irrevocable decision with them three weeks ago to each stay at home.
One of my children was even relieved that we were doing this!
», Explains the 75-year-old man.
A forced and assumed desertion.
But logic believes this former dentist from Cros-de-Cagnes: "We are very aware of the dangerousness and believe that it is well worth not catching this coronavirus, he says, especially as I am a little more fragile than usual with recent health problem, so there are additional reasons to be careful.
"
Because Christmas remains Christmas, the couple, "married for 55 years", will not sacrifice everything for all that.
“We sent by La Poste the part of Christmas Cake that we traditionally share with our son from Toulon.
We will pass the rest to that of Nice.
We have prepared good meals for both of us.
Foie gras, salmon roe, smoked trout for New Year's Eve and oven-baked guinea fowl on the 25th ”confides the septuagenarian.
Beyond the dishes, the essential ingredient of family solidarity will not be overlooked.
Grandparents, children, grandchildren have planned to meet in full today (Christmas) at 12:30 pm… by videoconference, explains Jean-Pierre Dreyfus.
“We're going to have a Zoom meeting.
It will be very good.
We will be many but safe.
We can almost drink together, virtually.
"
The retiree, "
hygiene
ayatollah
(sic)
" he quipped, and a staunch defender of barrier gestures which sometimes earned him a few hitches with people too crowded in the checkout lines, thinks that this situation could lead to the positive in France: “We will have a much cleaner population.
Since we are told to really wash our hands, we no longer talk about gastro, nor bronchiolitis.
Following the advice of a doctor, for two years, I kiss less and shake hands less systematically.
I no longer have a cold even though I had bronchitis regularly… ”
For him, in any case, this very light Christmas, as sad as it is, is not insurmountable.
"We are not choosy," says the man invested in the charitable sector.
Our families have known war, terrible situations.
The pandemic is very unfortunate, but we can spend a year gritting our teeth without complaining.
Unlike some who no longer have anyone, we will be alone, but we do not feel isolated.
"
IN LONDON.
"Christmases, there will be others"
In London and throughout the south-east of the United Kingdom, containment is once again in order.Photoshot / Maxppp
Christmas is canceled!
In London and in the south-east of the country, that is to say a third of the population, containment is once again in order following the discovery of a new variant of the virus, a mutation that worries.
Beyond the ban on leaving and traveling outside this area, the French who live in the English capital are also subject to the measures announced by our country.
Thus Fabien Le Luyer canceled his flight just before the restrictions announced by France.
"I was to leave on the 19th and come back on December 27th, but rumors were already running about measures to come, I preferred to anticipate and avoid the stress of returning".
Even though it has been a year since he saw his family again, he does not regret his decision.
"I saw the galley of all the French to try to return, I was very happy not to be part of it".
Resilient, "we can not do anything against a global problem", he admits, he planned to call his mother on the 25th to "send her virtual kisses".
Anne-Sophie Mathieu was to take her Eurostar on the 23rd. Finally, she celebrates New Year's Eve, alone, in London.
“I hesitated for a long time”.
The obligation to pass a PCR test, its cost but also the impossibility of having an appointment before his departure date will have been right for his return to France.
"I know families who paid 1000 pounds (1111 euros) to be sure to get the test results on time."
The young woman says she is very sad.
"I live alone and it was an opportunity to see mine again," she says, exasperated.
I followed all the rules, I have been working from home since March.
I lost my grandmother in June and I couldn't even come back ”.
But she tries to put things into perspective.
"There is a worse situation than mine, like these vulnerable or elderly people who can feel even more alone."
For Alexia, Christmas takes place in the hospital.
This nurse in the Covid unit, canceled her ticket, reserved since spring, at the last moment.
"I did not want to infect my family, especially with the appearance of these new strains, given that I rub shoulders with patients all day," explains the 27-year-old Frenchwoman on duty on Christmas Day.
Her mom cried when she heard the news.
“I understand, it's the only time we can be together.
But I tell myself that Christmases, there will be others ”.
Linda had to reorganize with her husband.
She does not come home so as not to risk infecting her family.
“It is not useful to take risks.
One of my sisters in Paris and the rest of my family in Nice, we wanted to avoid crowded stations ”, comments the young woman.
At home, the couple plans to console themselves around good little dishes: risotto of Saint-Jacques and leg of lamb.
“We still want to create a Christmas atmosphere.
We will wait until January to find our families ”.