France is now in lockdown

He wants to make a “frein brutale”.

Protect the old, the young, the nurses, the poor, and the economy.

He’s harshly shot down herd immunity by saying getting 50-60% of the population suggests, at current state, around 400,000 additional deaths. Unacceptable.

He also says it’s pointless isolating only those at most risk as the virus risks coming too quickly from anybody who may interact with that person.

Yup… A national confinement (lockdown) from Friday (0h00). Schools (for the young – école/lycée) will remain open (universities close). Will need paperwork to go to work, shopping, etc. A ban on public gatherings, with a special exemption for Toussant (on Sunday).
Factories and such will continue working. Bars, restaurants, and non-essential shops/businesses will close. Public services (like the post, tax office, etc) will keep working.

The frontiers with other EU countries (Schengen) will remain open.

there are very many people who are too selfish and/or stupid

Given the footnote:
“the company I work for had the bean counters working from home……for half the day. The other half of the day they were in the office doing office stuff. Way to miss the f***ing point, guys!”

I’m voting for my abbreviated version of your comment.

Every 15 days they will review the situation to determine whether to make further measures, or relax thinks a little.
They said that in the spring, and look how long it went on for.
I think, right now, we might be able to consider Christmas to be potentially cancelled. It’s less than eight weeks away.

As for my car… F***. I think I’ll have to see if I can figure out how to do an oil change myself. If this is for RND(60) days, I’m going to be at risk of going far over the deadline for having that done.

Schools (for the young) will remain open.

Yeah, because asymptomatic toddlers etc can’t spread it that’s restricted to teenagers and adults. Sigh

Will need paperwork to go to work, shopping, etc.

My current work status (and many of my colleagues) involves shifting from the personal¹ device to the work device. Journey times are much reduced.²
Some people still have to go in, on a rota, and the last work of the day apparently involves wiping down the desk with some rather “stinky cleaner” but I’m avoiding that until they do the op on my left eye (I hope)

Food is delivered. We figured the small charge was actually on a par with driving there and back to do the shopping and it’s way less effort.

¹ In my case it’s actually an old, discarded, work device.

Of course, since Boris has no original ideas and grabs others for a repaint, we can guess what’s coming this side of the canal.

@Rick you should be able to manage an oil change yourself. Just don’t pour the old oil down the drain, you’ll probably have to hang on to it until recycling centres are open again.

it needs an oil change every 5000km and a major service every 10,000

Km? Really? Are you driving something dating back to la revolution?

The oil changing every few miles is a US going back to the model T Ford, with side valve engines, straight cut gears and mineral oils. Despite modern synthetic oils and much tighter engineering tolerances, they still stick to a change every 3000 miles, even though on a modern car you wouldn’t be able to tell any difference between the oil you are throwing away and brand new oil.

And for major servicing even my RX-8 only needs it every 12,500 miles (20,000 of your metric stuff), many cars have service intervals of twice that now.

@Rick you should be able to manage an oil change yourself. Just don’t pour the old oil down the drain, you’ll probably have to hang on to it until recycling centres are open again.

Rick lives in rural France – he doesn’t have a drain to pour anything down!

He actually doesn’t even have a septic tank!

There is the odd ditch, but I think we all know that would be unacceptable to use.

you should be able to manage an oil change yourself

Waiting on the mechanic to know if he’s able to work, collect the car, etc.
Cockwomble in Nice has kind of taken precedence over everything else.

I am, also, pricing up the stuff to do it myself. A bit stuck on the oil, the internet can’t agree on 10W40 and 15W40.

don’t pour the old oil down the drain

I might live in the back of beyond, but I wasn’t born yesterday. It (1.8l) will go in a plastic water bottle along with the mower oil.

Km? Really?

Yes. It’s a Kubota Z402. It needs an oil change every 100h of use, which is taken to be 5000km.

Are you driving something dating back to la revolution?

Perhaps. It dates back to the launch of Channel 5 and Clinton’s 2nd term, and when Acorn was still a thing.

And for major servicing

It’s a CVT transmission with rubber drive belt. Needs changed every 10k.

Meet Felicity: https://youtu.be/wIn07Yx3HBA

Enjoy a drive in pretty scenery: https://youtu.be/RBMqPVB9noY (I speak, you’ll need the subtitles)

the internet can’t agree on 10W40 and 15W40.

Doesn’t seem a crucial difference. Back in the day I remember hunting for some single-grade 50W for a clapped-out Velocette LE200 – it was like treacle, but the little sidevalve ate it up (literally). No, Acorn computers have not been my only eccentricity…

CVT transmission with rubber drive belt

I’ve had a Daf 66, a Volvo 66, and four Volvo 343s like that. And Grace (my wife) had a Volvo 66. All far past their best before dates before we had them!

But they had two rubber belts each, and the belts were good for about 60k miles. Driving one that had shed one of its belts was quite interesting, but it got us where we were going.

@Rick probably the best way to avoid getting caught by France’s reduced speed limits.

Driving one that had shed one of its belts was quite interesting, but it got us where we were going.

If I shed one of my belts… Well, if you watched the first video you’d understand. ;-)

France’s reduced speed limits.

France reduced it’s speed limits? Somebody better tell the French that. 😋

The benefit of a dinky Playmobil car: https://youtu.be/u5Pl5ZHymjA

France reduced it’s speed limits? Somebody better tell the French that.

No point; they’d never believe it.

If I shed one of my belts

I take it yours is like the early Dafs, with no diff & relying on different ratio belts on the two sides? The later Dafs and all the Volvos had the belts in parallel and a normal diff. The only thing that happens when you shed a belt is that the ratio goes stupidly low at the least touch on the accelerator, wherea presumably you end up driving only one rear wheel? Or do you only have one belt?

French speed limits mainly seem to be for UK cars (from my experience of coming back from Le Mans, in normal times).

French speed limits mainly seem to be for UK cars

You clearly haven’t realised that the French authorities have figured out that since the UK roads are full of traffic jams and roadworks¹ the UK public don’t know how to drive that fast – so as a matter of public safety they stop any right-hand drive car.

¹ Unless things have changed in recent times the French seem to avoid delays caused by roadworks by not repairing the roads. I once joked, while flying over France, that even their airspace was bumpy. :)

Unless things have changed in recent times the French seem to avoid delays caused by roadworks by not repairing the roads.

I think you’re well out-of-date there, Steve!

I note that today is the 29th anniversary of our French house purchase, and in the 39/40 years of driving in France we have seen the evolution of the quality of their roads towards the present superb state of the major routes!

An observation, not a criticism.

PS, now Rick’s access road/driveway is a totally different matter! But that is “unadopted”!

I think you’re well out-of-date there, Steve!

That’s a reasonable summary of me.

I note that today is the 29th anniversary of our French house purchase, and in the 39/40 years of driving in France we have seen the evolution of the quality of their roads towards the present superb state of the major routes!

Last time I was over there, my father was driving. He died 22 years and 29 days ago.
<boris mode> So, you’ve had 22 years of euro-subsidies to improve things with. </boris>¹ I bet the airspace is still bumpy :)
At that time the only decently brewed beer was coming out of small setups in Normandy/Brittany and were easier to get at the Guernsey beer festival and local bars than their home area. Thinks… ah, yes, Coreff was one of the names.

Road behaviour: Is it true that only the Parisians² consider parking a major contact sport?

¹ I feel unclean now, stained to the depth of my soul…

On the 28th I said:

Of course, since Boris has no original ideas and grabs others for a repaint, we can guess what’s coming this side of the canal.

No, I can’t predict the lottery – Boris is way more simple

Oh well, here’s some Covid (I typed void…) light relief from the Twittersphere:

Due to coronavirus, all TCP applications are being converted to UDP to avoid handshakes.