Today @TheLocalFrance asked restaurant workers in Paris about how they feel about the government potentially closing them down over the weekend in a bid to slow down the spread of Covid-19 in the capital. Here’s a look at what they said. Thread.

“We’re all living in fear,” said Alexis Dabanian, owner of Gaston, a brasserie at Place Contrescarpe in the 5th arrondissement. “If we have to close again, there will be many places that won’t reopen.”

Lots of empty or nearly empty restaurants at lunch hour today in the Paris Latin Quarter. Maybe because it was raining, but owners said the absence of international tourism since the pandemic had been a tough blow for the area’s eateries.

There were no protesters either. (Top Chef celeb Philippe Etchebest in Bordeaux had called on all bar and restaurant workers to strike today just before lunch.)

Ramon, 22, a waiter at Gaston, was explaining how he usually wouldn’t be able to chat with me during pre-Covid busy lunch hours, then was (happily) interrupted.

Experienced some technical difficulties yesterday, so here’s the rest of this thread: