" I can not stand it anymore.
Customers are asking.
We must take back control of our lives!
Freedom!
"Plates in hand and to the applause in his restaurant in downtown Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) filled to the brim, Christophe Wilson, boss of the" Poppies ", clearly sent to the plunge the ban on opening for restaurants this Wednesday.
At the table and in two services, “90 guests” say relatives, as in the world before.
Without a mask and without really social distancing at lunchtime.
"I am not afraid of the cluster, we are all in good health, we do not care about all that, the virus is not our problem" launches the restaurateur, also without protection to the face, hoping that colleagues "will open everywhere in France".
Ten minutes at 135 euros
In the room, joyful atmosphere.
Among the customers, some members of the yellow vests movement let go: “We were fighting to improve our living conditions, now it's for our freedoms.
There were other restaurateurs in the room and the wife of a millionaire, ”says one of them.
What we could not verify.
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Outside, the police observe, scrutinize, leave and then come back without evacuating the restaurant.
They will ultimately draw up ten PV at 135 euros.
“We didn't want to add mess to mess.
Some did not wear their masks outside, others refused to disclose their identity, there will be other people fined after the usual checks ”, reacted at the end of the day Benoît Huber, chief of staff of the prefect.
The restaurateur placed in police custody
According to him, a check within the establishment allowed the discovery of a man who worked in the kitchen in an irregular situation.
He was arrested and placed in an administrative detention center.
The manager of the restaurant was interviewed in the nearby central police station in the afternoon and then placed in police custody for employment of a foreigner in an irregular situation.
"He committed an offense," explains the chief of staff of the prefect and will have to answer for his acts in court.
It was clearly a militant action with regulars of the protest.
We will be firm with those who would be tempted to do the same.
The sanction could be heavy with, among other things, an administrative closure of at least two weeks applicable when restaurants are authorized to reopen.
Seasonal rentals prohibited
This act of claimed “civil disobedience” occurs in a very tense context in Nice.
The figures for the epidemic are among the highest in France.
A few hours earlier, Mayor Christian Estrosi had just announced that the English variant of Covid-19 was detected in the city's wastewater.
The elected official was also to file at the prefecture, this Wednesday, an unprecedented municipal decree to ban seasonal rentals during the next February vacation.
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One way to limit the mixing of populations, he argues.
But a measure that many owners have not necessarily taken well in this very touristy town.
"It's a disaster," says a woman from Nice who invested last year.
We had bought a property to put it in unprofessional furnished.
We're dead.
"
