President Emmanuel Macron addressed the country Sunday June 14, announcing that a number of coronavirus restrictions would be lifted a week earlier than planned. As of Monday June 15, restaurants and cafés in Paris are allowed to open.
Restaurants and cafés opened throughout the rest of the country earlier this month, with restrictions that will now apply to Paris: tables must be one meter apart from one another, and all clients and staff must wear masks when moving about the restaurant. Dining at the bar will not be permitted. In order to prepare for these new restrictions and provide a safe environment for staff and diners, some restaurants have opted to wait a few days to reopen.
Find out who’s open and how they’re serving with our guide to Paris restaurants in summer 2020.
Paris had previously been restricted to outdoor dining, and as a result, allowances had been made for extending sidewalk cafés (or developing them in the case of restaurants that were not zoned for them). These allowances will continue, and a further four streets have been pedestrianized to allow for larger terraces: Quincampoix (3rd), Montmorency (3rd), Fontaines-du-Temple (3rd), and Biot (17th).
The easing of these rules is possible thanks to an ever-dropping number of new COVID-19 cases, even as French businesses reopened over the past month. Libération, which analyzed recent data pertaining to the pandemic, writes that France is undergoing “a slow, progressive but constant return to normality.”
In addition to reopening restaurants and cafés, other restrictions have been lifted. Travel to other European countries is now permitted, and Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that beginning July 1, French borders would begin to open to travel from outside Europe. Gatherings of more than ten people are now permitted.
The public health state of emergency in place since March will officially end July 10, at which point President Macron is expected to address the nation once more to explore plans for a post-COVID France.