The festive lights are on in Paris, but everyone’s home

Paris turned on its festive Christmas lights on Sunday 22 November 2020. But Paris is still in lockdown due to the Coronovis pandemic (Covid-19).

Lockdown is expected to end on 1 December. President Emmanuel Macron will deliver a speech tomorrow, Tuesday 24 November, to announce whether lockdown will or won’t end, and any further restrictions into December and January.

The festive lights adorn more than 400 trees along the Avenue des Champs-Elysées.

Unfortunately, although I am in Paris, I won’t be able to see the lights until lockdown is lifted because residents are only permitted to walk within one kilometre of their residence. People in Paris must also carry a paper (“la attestation”) stating the reason for being outside – medical, grocery shopping, exercise, going to school or work. Looking at Christmas lights is not on the list! And I live outside the one kilometre zone of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Maybe I can see them in December!

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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