As Parisians flee to countryside, rural-dwellers accuse them of spreading infection and emptying shops

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

Parisians who fled the French capital before the national lockdown are finding the welcome to second or family homes in the countryside less than warm after locals accused them of spreading the coronavirus.

Trains leaving Paris for the countryside were packed on Tuesday morning, hours before the government’s order to stay at home unless absolutely necessary or face €135 fines came into effect at midday.

In places, however, the Parisian arrivals were met with a frosty reception.

Graffiti on a fence at Cap Ferret near Arcachon in south-west France set the tone with “Parigo home virus?”. Parigo is French slang for Parisians.

The local Sud Ouest newspaper reported that a number of rural inhabitants were less than happy to see their Parisian compatriots.

“We’re asking people to stay at home and Parisians to stay in Paris. You can well understand that if 4,000 people from Paris invade and one third of them are infected without knowing, obviously it [the virus] risks spreading rapidly,” wrote one commentator.

On the Facebook page of Lège-Cap-Ferret in the Gironde, the reaction was equally critical.

“Already the Parisians and others with a second home have arrived … given that the supermarket has been stripped in two days,” wrote one local.

Another wrote: “It’s very worrying to see all those people fleeing Paris – that will certainly spread the virus.”

Ludovic Pons, a local politician, reported “feeling angry” on his Facebook page tweeting: “Thank you Parisians; don’t bring us the virus.”

When criticised for the post, he replied: “Some of them are walking on the beach and in the oyster-producing villages … It’s not a holiday, it’s quarantine for ALL.”

In Brittany, Le Télégramme newspaper reported widespread local anger at urbanites descending on the region.

A doctor from Auray, where one of the first coronavirus clusters was reported in France, was also concerned about the new arrivals.

“It would be a pity if the influx of visitors aggravates the situation, which has been mostly well contained so far across in the area,” he said.

The coronavirus pandemic: visualising the global crisis Read more

On Belle-Île-en-Mer, one of the Breton islands where no cases of coronavirus have been reported so far among the 5,500 permanent residents, the atmosphere was reportedly tense.

Fréderic Le Gars, president of the community committee, asked those with second homes to stay away.

The mayor Thibault Grollemund, president of the hospital committee added: “There’s an obvious risk of saturation at our local hospital, that has no intensive care,” he said.

One non-resident named only as Mathilde, who arrived just before the lockdown, told the paper: “It was already strained on the boat here and the welcome from locals has been icy.

“They are blaming us for bringing the virus, emptying supermarket shelves and saying we risk taking up the rare number of hospital beds here. My neighbour gave me a ticking off from behind her hedge as I was unloading my suitcases.”

She added: “As a result, we’re feeling guilty and keeping a low profile as well as applying as best we can the confinement measures.”

Isabelle Ezanno, a doctor in Crac’h in the Morbihan, Brittany, described the Parisian exodus as “irresponsible”.

“People arriving here will no doubt bring a case of the virus with them,” she told France Info radio.

“I wonder if people understand the gravity of the situation.”

On Wednesday morning, the local police prefecture issued a decree limiting access to the Breton islands and banning non-residents from renting property on them.

France has 7,730 confirmed cases of coronavirus, an increase of 1,097 in just 24 hours. There have been 175 deaths. Of the sick, 699 are in intensive care. Jérôme Salomon, director of the French health authority, said 7% of casualties were under 70 years old.