While the French rushed for Covid-19 tests to find out if they could celebrate Christmas with confidence, the “trap” has inexorably closed on them.
With a positive result, many of them have chosen, reluctantly, to wake up alone on December 24, to preserve their loved ones.
How does a second small line on a test bar threaten the Christmas of many French people?
Testimonials.
Read also Covid-19 screening tests: laboratories sound the alarm
Three days before Christmas Eve on December 24, Raphaël, 25, a recruitment consultant in Paris, learns that he has been in contact after an unfortunate drink with colleagues in a bar. A good student, he immediately went to the pharmacy to take a test. Stupor and trembling when he clicks on the URL link and sees this terrible word appear on a red background: POSITIVE. The next day, he planned to return to his family, in Eure-et-Loir. For him, there is no doubt:
"Suddenly, I'm going to celebrate Christmas alone, in my apartment." I'd rather stay at home than go see them, wear a mask and be alone on a table 5 meters away - I know people who will do this! I don't want to take any risks ”
.
A choice with a very bitter taste, however:
“My family, I haven't seen them for three to four months.
This is my first post-study job, so I have few vacations.
I have been in contact several times during the year and I have always fallen through the cracks.
It had to happen now, ”
he still plague.
“I have been in contact several times during the year and I have always fallen through the cracks.
It had to happen now!
"
Raphaël, 25 years old.
Same dismay in Louis, 23, a student in the capital, tested positive on December 21.
“I have to isolate myself for ten days, until the 31st included!
There will be no party for me with the family, for sure: I am prohibited from going out according to Health Insurance
, ”he squeaks.
With relatives, from negotiation to strict compliance with the rules
These drastic choices are often made in pain, faced with the sometimes not very understanding reaction of the parents.
“My mother was sad.
She encouraged me to come anyway: 'we will take cardboard plates'.
But I prefer to do something again later in the year, ”
says Raphaël.
Read alsoA Christmas in the shadow of the Omicron variant
In Eure-et-Loir too, the pill is hard to swallow for Louis' mother hen:
"My mother tried to negotiate by saying that she had already had it in December," he
says.
But I want to avoid spreading the virus. It is true that she will remain alone with my brother, but I want to avoid stupidly infecting them with dinner. ”
At first, Louis, who confesses that he is
“not particularly”
fond of Christmas with his family, is almost relieved.
“But eventually I realized that I loved Christmas more than I thought I would,” he
says.
Staying alone in a closed apartment, with the Health Insurance which reminded me again to encourage me not to go out, it's creepy ”.
“But what worries me the most is staying ten days in a 17m²,” he
adds.
I was in the middle of a move, so the apartment is empty! ”.
“I realized that I loved Christmas more than I thought I would.
Staying alone in 17m², with the Health Insurance which called me again earlier to encourage me not to go out ... it's creepy ”.
Louis, 23-year-old Parisian student.
At Claire too, a young professional in Paris, tested positive after having learned to be
"contact case of a dozen people in all
", the family tries to negotiate, the grandmother in mind:
"everyone was ready to quarantine .
My grandmother was the first to beg me to come, but she is 99 years old!
I didn't want to put her in danger.
And then spend several days masked a meter from people, without touching anything, that tempted me average ”.
Read alsoCovid-19: Christmas restrictions for thousands of seniors
For others, the choice to cancel the traditional table is made on the side of relatives who are afraid of being infected. This is the case with Antoine, a 23-year-old journalist in the Paris region, tested positive on Wednesday:
“I had to go to my parents' house near Versailles with my wife, who had it last week. Although it is negative now, they no longer want us to come, ”he
confides, while expressing his understanding.
“They are very disappointed, because they have been waiting for this moment for several weeks, just like my sisters. I
understand them, especially because we would have also seen my grandparents.
But we are also very disappointed.
"And for good reason:
" we are going to stay here, together, and celebrate Christmas alone "
.
The couple hope, however, to postpone the family celebrations to early January.
Hydroalcoholic gel "Christmas spices"
Like them, many other couples are preparing, at the last moment, to celebrate Christmas alone or within the strict nuclear family.
This is the case of Émilie, Louis and their two children, settled near Aix-en-Provence.
“My wife just tested positive.
We are therefore going to spend Christmas alone with the little ones at home, without seeing the rest of the family, ”
laments Louis, 36 years old.
Read also Covid-19: subject to barrier gestures, Santa Claus try to preserve the magic of the holidays
For Romain and his wife, it is the positive test of his daughter, in her last days of school, which
"ruined Christmas and the holidays".
To play down, the facetious father shares, on Facebook, the spelling prowess of his daughter - "Jélecovid", she wrote on a paper decorated with stickers - or the purchase of a bottle of hydroalcoholic gel "spices de Noël ”in its“ limited edition ”.
“There are four of us at home, and we really have nothing to complain about.
We adapt happily, he
sums up.
I think especially of those on whom it falls but who are alone
”.
Solo feast and cinema or New Year's Eve between covids
For the most isolated, there is no question, however, of being overwhelmed: if many have chosen to postpone their reunion, they intend to mark the occasion, even solo. Raphaël, alone in his apartment, has already anticipated his New Year's Eve on the 24th:
“I may be going to redo the Harry Potter saga. And that will not prevent me from eating the log and enjoying a glass of champagne! I will drink a
Facetime
call
with my family! ”.
Louis, for his part, consoles himself since he learned that he was entitled to have groceries delivered:
"Perhaps I will have a king's feast delivered?"
.
And above all, with the prospect of catching up with the New Year:
“officially, I have to isolate myself until the 31st inclusive until midnight.
But it will be ten days, within two or three hours ... ”.
New year's eve organized between unknown covidae
With other young people, we decide to organize ourselves differently so as not to be left alone: why not feast ... between "covids"?
This is the case with Claire, who will not be outdone for New Years Eve and Christmas Day:
“on the evening of the 24th, it will be a little New Year's Eve with a few colleagues who are covid.
And the next day, rebel with friends of friends, people with whom I was put in contact!
The host has room and plenty of board games
, ”she smiles.