Sundays are generally quiet in Paris, but mornings can be hectic as many markets, grocery stores or independent epiceries are only open for business until about 1 p.m. So when the government announced on Saturday night that all non-essential shops, cafes and restaurants would now have to close as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wondered how the French might fare with this loss of … fare. At around 10:30 a.m., I popped my lavender-scented hand sanitizer in my pocket and headed for my local market in the 12th arrondissement, the Marché d’Aligre. (Produce markets are considered “essential.” Each of the 20 arrondissements has at least one; many have more than that. The Marché d’Aligre is one of the few open every day but Monday.)
What I saw blew my mind. People were shopping, shoulder-to-shoulder, as if it were any other Sunday. This didn’t feel like doomsday prep. There was no sort of urgency. The buskers singing Edith Piaf songs were still entertaining shoppers who were feeling Peruvian avocados for ripeness and sniffing clementines from Corsica as if it were any other weekend. And, oui, it happened to be a beautiful spring one at that; a balmy 55 degrees…