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Day 47 in Carcassonne 🇫🇷

5th Day of the 7th week of confinement

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A rainy Saturday and most likely Sunday as well. Not so good news to start the day, Al informs me that the BBC has run out of “The Archers” episodes and will have to go back in the archives for the next few weeks. That’s a major disaster.

For the 3rd time in 7 weeks, I woke up with a soar throat and all sorts of symptoms pointing to a cold but most importantly no fever. Inactivity playing up I guess.

The 1st website I looked at this morning was “Carcassonne.org” and as usual no relevant news. Just about to go through as many newspapers as possible and gather information.

I came across a very interesting article from a French lady living and working in Berlin who analyses the difference between France & Germany during this period. Very good thoughts. It is quite long and in French so I shall take some time to transalate it in English. It is worth a read. In the meantime here is the link to the French version.

The daily Dashboard

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France

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Les departements

Quite a few changes in 24 hours

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Here is the status on May 1st at 19:00

Thursday April 30th – 7pm

Occitanie

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JJ’s prediction

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02/05/2020 65 days or June 6th till the end of the lockdown in France

01/05/2020 63 days or June 26th till the end of the lockdown in France

30/04/2020 65 days or July 4th till the end of the lockdown in France

29/04/2020 73 days or July 11th till the end of the lockdown in France

Information & News

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▶︎ Green v Red

The question has been raised wether we can go to a red classified departement from a green one (and back). At the moment the question does not arise for Carcassonne since the 100km radius limit only brings us to another green departement (for the time being). I have a few very good French friends living in the South of France and we discussed yesterday if we could meet up. So I drew the 100km status for each of us and there is very little interaction possible.

My friends living in the Sanary, Hyeres, SIx Fours area are not so lucky. First, the departement is currently orange and if it turns green 3 quaters of the area they could visit is the sea and there is no authorisation for boating up to now.

Similar situation with my friend living near Perpignan 3 quarter of the area is the sea and Spain. Both forbidden areas.

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▶︎ Lufthansa

Following our discussion last evening during the Virtual Apéro here is an article from the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) on May 1st

Lufthansa pilots are offering their employer a substantial pay cut. In this way, they want to help restructure the company, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus crisis. Until mid 2022, the pilots are willing to lose up to 45 percent of their salary, their association Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) explained on Thursday. The short-time work allowance could also be reduced further.

The concessions would relieve Lufthansa by a total of about 350 million euros. In return, the group’s executive board must do everything possible to overcome the crisis together with the employees. The personnel in the upper compensation area thus wanted to assume their special responsibility, “even if this meant painful cuts,” explained VC boss Markus Wahl. “It is important that jobs are maintained and protection against dismissal is agreed upon.”

(I do not see this happening in France somehow)

▶︎ Ryanair

The low-cost airline Ryanair is going to cut 3,000 jobs in order to be able to “survive” the air transport crisis which is endangering the whole sector. The Irish carrier explains that pilots and cabin crew will be affected mainly, and that the plan concerns 15% of the total workforce of about 19,000 people.

These job cuts are “the minimum we need to survive the next 12 months”, company boss Michael O’Leary told the BBC. If a vaccine is not found and traffic does not return to normal, “we may have to announce more cuts,” he warned. O’Leary also said his restructuring plan could lead to base closures in the UK.

The British trade union Unite is asking the company to give up these job cuts, saying it has “significant cash reserves and is better equipped than other companies” to deal with the crisis.

▶︎ Canal du Midi

Further to our discussion yesterday: By decision of the waterway authorities, navigation will only be possible from 29 May 2020.

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▶︎ Bicycles

The State offers 50 euros to repair his bike and boost its use. A government plan offers a 50 euro flat rate to refurbish private bikes. This package is valid within a reference network of repairers. These repairers will be listed on a specific platform and on the website of the Bicycle Users Federation (FUB), a partner in the plan. More than 3,000 professionals have already registered on the platform, which will be put online in the coming days,” said Olivier Schneider, FUB President.

Round the world

▶︎ Meanwhile in Australia

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