Across Europe, there was a widespread feeling that the health crisis flaying Italy for weeks had arrived at the doorsteps of its neighbors, and that the time for hoping the threat would somehow dissipate without sweeping intervention was over.

Until Saturday, cafes in Paris had been full of revelers and restaurants had been doing good business, even without tourists. But then French officials said the crisis could be disregarded no longer.

The time of classic Parisian nonchalance had come to an end.

“In France, when you tell people to stay home, they go to bars to celebrate the closure,” said Hélène Noaillon, a bartender at Les Pères Populaires, reacting to news of the closures on Saturday night while the bar was still open.

“Our society is more libertarian,” she said. “As long as you don’t put people under any real constraints, they’re going to continue to live the way they want.”