Paris comes back to life as café, restaurant terraces reopen

The French capital’s world famous pavement cafés and restaurants have reopened for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdown began mid-March. Limited to terrace-only service, business is expected to be good on a day of warm spring sunshine.

Café Français near Bastille, Paris, 2 June, 2020. © Reuters/Christian Hartmann

Staff at cafés, bars and restaurants in Paris are allowed to serve customers outside where chairs and tables have been arranged to allow for social distancing.

For Paris and the Ile de France region, as well as the two other designated “orange zones”, the overseas regions of Mayotte and Guyane, indoor service is not permitted.

#Paris is truly coming alive again, the terraces for cafes, bars and restaurants are allowed to reopen today. #France #Covid19 #Coronavirus #Deconfinement pic.twitter.com/xmRDPwF7Xg

— Daniel Finnan (@Daniel_Finnan) June 2, 2020

Elsewhere in the country even indoor service is now allowed, though with anti-Covid measures in place.

Paris' cafés, bars and restaurants reopen after two and a half months with their doors closed due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Belleville, Paris, 2 June 2020. © RFI / Mike Woods

The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo has promised that extra public space will be made available for cafés without their own terraces or spaces on the pavement, so that they can re open for business.

On vous fait vivre la réouverture des restaurants sur @LCI! Pour la première fois, le bistro parisien Le Mesturet installe une #terrasse faute de pouvoir ouvrir en intérieur. 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/r9PM9XrhH4

— Hélène Bonnet (@helene_bonnet) June 2, 2020

Some restaurants cafés and bars even opened up at midnight to celebrate the end of lockdown closures.

Parks and public gardens also opened on Saturday, and museums and monuments are also resuming services, as life for Parisians slowly beings its new normal.