Our series "Welcome to the Confined Ch'tis":
Marie-Louise, 103 years old and owner of a bistro: "The Covid, I don't care"
Jean-Charles, 63 years old: "My virus is RC Lens"
Father Sébastien, 40 years old: "It's been a while since we party"
Claude, 60 years old and pigeon fancier: "I'm worried about my carrier pigeons"
Philippe, 54 years old: "The chip house, it saved me from boredom"
“Health!
»At 11 am, Marie-Louise Wirth, 103 and a half years old, savored her" little port "as an early aperitif.
One of the secrets of its longevity.
“I drink every day but not a lot,” she clinks.
The oldest of Isbergues (Pas-de-Calais), city of 9,000 souls 15 km from Béthune, is in Olympic form.
It shows itself impervious to the fears of the pandemic.
“Of course morale is good.
How do you want me to worry at my age?
People continue to see everything in black.
There are, it's never going!
Me, I am always optimistic.
There is nothing that does not get better, ”she says positively.
The carefree receives us at her house in slippers.
His house houses his unnamed bar.
“Where there is good beer, there is no need for a sign.
The boss has hydrated throats for seven decades.
"The water is polluted, drink Muscadet", invites an advertisement from yesteryear.
But with the health crisis, the establishment with Formica tables and lace curtains is closed.
The shutter is half unrolled.
The century-old bistro has no more customers, just good friends who pop in to chat and make sure she doesn't miss anything.
“I only have good people who come to see me,” she thanks.
Marie-Louise Wirth has run her unnamed bistro for seven decades.
LP / Olivier Lejeune
That morning, his friend Christine, 53, a hospital service agent, pushes the door.
She arrives with a shopping bag for her “grandmother at heart”.
She digresses on the latest confinement rules in the region, "a big joke".
Didier, 59, a construction worker, stops by to say hello unexpectedly during a day off.
“Our Marie-Lou, she has company,” comments the guardian angel.
His last vaccine dated from the municipal school
In her den, the single, childless young lady is not masked.
“I don't care about anything, I don't care about anything.
When someone comes in, if they kiss me, I kiss them and if they don't kiss me, I don't kiss them.
She did not "catch the virus".
“Well, if I got it, I don't know.
And if I have to have it, I will have it.
I am a fatalist.
We can not do anything.
My neighbor, she never goes out, well, she caught it.
"
“To be over 100 years old and to spend all the days sitting, no thanks!
If I can't move, I might as well be in the coffin, ”says Marie-Louise Wirth.
LP / Olivier Lejeune
"Marie-Lou" is hardly worried.
" Fear does not avoid the danger.
The Covid, I don't care, I'm old enough to die.
She claims, a little provocatively.
In truth, she is very attached to life.
She rarely puts her nose outside lately.
"I have my servants," she laughs.
His friends are impressed by this iron health.
“She's tough,” admires Didier.
"Marie-Lou, I want her, I have too much respect for her", praises Christine.
The immortal, she cannot explain this incredible resistance.
“It's not genetic.
My father passed away at 63 and my sister had all the illnesses.
"
She is "never sick except for colds".
So the vaccination, she “didn't want to hear about it”.
It was her doctor who convinced her.
“He said to me:
But if Mrs. Wirth, it must be done
.
By dint of telling him no, I ended up saying yes, ”she laughs.
Her last vaccine dates back to her childhood and her years "in the town" when she had been immunized against tuberculosis.
She remembers that “at the time, we did that with a feather”.
A good two weeks ago, she received her first injection in the hospital and waits, serenely, "the second blow for Easter".
“I had no pain at all, no side effects.
I thanked the nurse:
My God, you are an artist madam, I did not feel anything
.
She has "no idea" what she was "injected" except that "it is the American", understand the "Pfizer" whose name she cannot pronounce.
“It's like when you take a pill, you don't know what's in it.
"
He misses restaurants and his "old man's club"
Interviewing "Marie-Lou" is exhilarating.
But it is a balancing act because she "does not like the curious".
“If everyone took care of themselves, it would be better.
Beware, therefore, of the question of too many.
"Where did I get it from?"
He wants to know everything and sleep alone, as we say at home, ”she says to his girlfriend Christine before staring at us with a smirk.
The gaze is not black.
The iris is a brilliant blue.
“Customers tell me:
You have talking eyes.
When you're not happy, it shows right away
.
But when I really don't like someone, it's:
Get out!
"
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We have the right to stay a little longer.
His opinion is sought on "the management of the health crisis" by the authorities.
“I'm not smart enough to talk about this.
»A prognosis for the end of the epidemic?
"I don't know, I'm not the good Lord," she retorts.
Before getting wet: “I say there is still plenty for the whole year.
But hey, it can stay like that for 10 years, I have my crosswords.
I adapt easily.
"
It is all the same small pleasures of before-Covid 19 that it misses.
"The restaurants", confesses the lover of sweetbreads and scallops.
"But not just any eh, the two local stars, there is an open table", cafte Didier.
"Marie-Lou", who "always wears high heels to go out", is also nostalgic for her "old man's club".
“We were dancing, there was cream pie for afternoon tea.
On the other hand, she does not regret the organized trips.
“I have no more dreams.
I have been to America twice, to Marrakech, Ireland.
I went gondola in Venice and tree climbing in Martinique… ”
According to “Marie-Lou”, “the bistro is an antidepressant, it's recreation for people”.
LP / Olivier Lejeune
She hopes to be able to reopen her harbor soon.
As in the good old days, with the same philosophy: “I open when I want, I close when I want, I am not accountable.
According to her, "the bistro is an antidepressant, it's recreation for people."
She did not appeal for state aid.
“I don't need their money.
It was a very small matter anyway.
She has been retired for four decades.
But she can not help but roll up her sleeves behind the counter unlike those "young people who want to stop working before they start."
“To be over 100 years old and to spend all the days sitting, no thanks!
If I can't move, I might as well be in the coffin.
"While waiting for more active days, she allows herself a second stimulus, prompted by the house motto displayed in a wooden frame:" If you drink, you will die, if you don't drink, you will die, then drink.
"
