Leave, get some fresh air and get out of apartments where we have been circling like lions in cages for too long.
The new health restrictions to fight against the coronavirus, applicable from this Saturday evening on the whole of the territory, offer a narrow window of fire, which city dwellers clearly want to take advantage of before the total closure of schools and the limitation of travel. within a radius of 10 km.
Between now and Monday April 5, and during the three days of an Easter weekend in the form of a breath of fresh air, those who can have the opportunity to leave their region.
No need for a certificate, at least until Tuesday, April 6, to set sail and confine yourself elsewhere than at home, with friends, family or in a second home.
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For Pierre and Géraldine, a couple from La Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), it will be Brittany and a Sunday morning departure by car.
"We are fortunate to be able to be hosted by my parents, retired, who have a large house in Morbihan," explains Pierre, 43, an IT consultant.
Between two homework, they will be able to take walks with our 7 and 10 year old children and take care of them, while we will be in front of our computer screens, teleworking.
I don't know yet how long we'll be staying there.
Several weeks, that's for sure.
Four, maybe not.
"
No traffic jams or jostling in the station
This Friday evening, the real-time observations made by TomTom, a company specializing in infotrafic, on the traffic around the main cities, made it possible to measure the importance of this "exodus" which, in all likelihood, will be spread over the whole. of the weekend.
"It's a little more complicated in some cities, but without reaching the peaks observed last October at the start of the second confinement," notes Vincent Martinier, marketing director of TomTom.
In Marseille, Toulouse or Bordeaux, the traffic averages at the end of the afternoon are higher than those, low, of 2020 on the same date, but also and especially than the more standard ones of 2019. "
In the Paris region, on the other hand, no particularly remarkable traffic jam came, this Friday at 6 p.m., to disrupt road traffic on the A13 towards Normandy or on the Nationale 118, towards the West.
If reservations increased by 25% this Thursday on the SNCF website since the announcement, the day before, of new measures by Emmanuel Macron, no mess, no jostling at the Gare de Lyon, the departure point of the TGV to the southern coast.
But, among the travelers met at the very end of the afternoon, a majority of French people who had not given up on leaving, to enjoy a long weekend with family or friends.
Three days to breathe
Because even if "going to celebrate Easter is not a derogatory reason", as the Minister for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari tries to clarify in a series of tweets published this Friday as a guide to the new rules , many French people will take advantage of the three Easter days to breathe, before starting four new weeks of confinement.
Going to celebrate Easter is not a derogatory reason.
But if you want to change region to confine yourself, it is possible this weekend, Monday included.
- Jean-Baptiste Djebbari (@Djebbari_JB) April 2, 2021
The controls will indeed focus, still according to the minister, on the only health protocol such as wearing a mask but "not on the reasons for travel".
Enough to encourage some to share, this Sunday or Monday, a festive family meal or escape for a short getaway in the countryside.
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Forced to draw a line on their activity for the Easter holidays, tourist accommodation professionals have seized this opportunity to offer packages at attractive prices for the first long weekend of the year.
At Odalys for example, around sixty vacation homes remain open until Monday evening before total closure until the end of April.
“Very few customers who had booked for this weekend have canceled, unlike those on the Easter holidays.
Others have booked at the ultra-last minute for this weekend, ”observes Laurent Dusollier, general manager of the group.