"Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but we're closing: it's the law."
It is 10 pm after ten minutes when the waiters pass among the already very bare tables of Corcoran's to whistle the end of the evening definitively… and pour the beers into plastic cups.
Like all the bars in the capital and in the inner suburbs, this Irish pub on Boulevard Poissonnière (2nd arrondissement) had to comply with the new obligation to close early decided for a fortnight by the government in the “areas of the city”. 'enhanced alert' in order to curb the expansion of Covid-19.
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“For revelers like us, it's really sad, grimace Pauline and Saïd, 23 and 28, finishing their cocktails over the pool table.
10 p.m. is the start of the evening!
The day before, this law student and this digital executive stayed up until 2 am in a bar in Châtelet (Ist), as if to facilitate the weaning to come.
A measure poorly understood by customers ...
“I do not understand the logic of this measure, sighs Pauline.
The virus is no more active at 10 pm in a bar than during the day in the subway trains where we are crowded like sardines, or even in the lecture halls of my university.
"
In front of her pint of beer on the terrace, Sashka, 21, a student in philosophy also pleads against a "stupid" measure.
“When I finish class at 9 pm, I need to unwind in a cafe,” she argues.
That will not prevent us from continuing to see our friends but in our apartments after going to the grocery store to have a beer.
»Chloe, 27, who works in fashion, is more understanding.
"It is a symbolic measure to send a message to the population: to say that the situation is not normal, that we have to be careful".
His friend Jean-Benoît said he was pessimistic: “I see it as a first ban before something harder”.
... and the owners of establishments
In the huge room of the pub where the voice of Freddie Mercury echoes in the void, Mak, the manager of the establishment, is moping.
"It's a disaster and I'm angry," he breathes.
Since the deconfinement, we have done everything to respect the rules, he pleads: we have removed a lot of tables to space them 1.50 m apart, we no longer place orders at bars, customers put on their masks to go in the toilets… I have the impression that we are paying for other bars which have been much more negligent.
"
The "golden age" when the establishment welcomed hundreds of night owls per evening until 2:30 or even 5 in the morning, seems very far away.
From 35 a year ago, the number of pub employees has increased to 12. "2020 is really a black year," recognizes Mak.
“We have lost 70% of our turnover since the start of the epidemic,” confirms Liam Porisse-Corcoran, boss and co-founder with his pub brothers in 1997. He confides that he had to sell a small building that the family owned. in Montmartre (18th century) to continue paying the rent and not going out of business.
“A lot of coffee makers don't have our chance,” he admits.
But we will survive: I like this ad.
I don't want it to become a pharmacy or a bank branch.
"
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VIDEO. Coronavirus: new measures in heightened alert zone