Your Questions

Reader question: Can we ask our pool maintenance man to come and get our pool running? 

I have heard that gendarmes have been taking people’s names and car registration numbers in supermarket car parks and saying they will get a warning if they see the same cars there more than once a week. I live in the Lot but have heard this has happened in other departments too. Does this mean we can only go shopping once a week?

Reader question: The restriction on exercise is one hour/within 1km. This is fine if you take exercise on foot but I habitually exercise alone on a bike.

Many day-to-day aspects of the French confinement rules are causing uncertainty among readers – here we answer some recent questions that have been raised.

Is the medical treatment for Covid-19 free? Are routine health check appointments being carried out? 

I have a regular cleaner, who comes three hours per week, and whom I pay via the chèque emploi service universel (Cesu) system. She has informed me that she can't come until the confinement ends. How should I pay her for the next few weeks?

A friend who is separated and in the process of divorcing her husband has an eight year old daughter. As part of the court ruling on separation she is domiciled with her mother but her mother is required to take her 40km away to an airport to, either hand her over to her father or put her on a plane as an unaccompanied child to the other side of the country, depending on where the father is at the time, for all school holidays except summer which is split. Has this court judgement been overtaken by the Covid-19 regulations? Does she have the right to keep the child with her during the Easter break?

In the UK mortages are being suspended for three months - is France doing the same?

Reader question: I took my car for its CT (contrôle technique) before lockdown and it failed the test. It left me the usual two months to get work done but are garages open? Are the big car spare parts places open? If I can’t obtain replacements needed in two months, can I have an extension? 

My husband and I are registered gardeners and work alone. Are we allowed to work or is it deemed non-essential?     

I'm self-employed renting my chalet in the Alps but now have no income and no prospect of any bookings being made for at least the next three months. I'm counted as a micro-bic, not auto-entrepeneur or other. Is there any financial aid available for me? 

If people cancel their bookings, can we claim back our lost income from the government or are we entitled to compensation from the tourist board?

I have seen a nutritional label on certain supermarket foods but not all. It is useful, but why do some foods have it and others not?

Must we put time as well as date on confinement forms? Can we drive people to airport? Can we use a Drive supermarket which is 12km away when we have a food shop 1km away? What about expiring contrôle technique?

We live in a small village and do not have a household rubbish collection service. We have to take our rubbish to the déchetterie about one kilometre away. There is not a section on the form which covers this task. The local gendarmerie are fining people for going out without a reason listed in the form. I sent an email to our mairie, local councillor, the local gendarmes, and the main prefecture, no answer. Several neighbours are in the same situation. Can you help?

We are at our second home in France (Covid-19 confinement started when we were here) and have decided not to travel but we risk running out of our usual medication and we are not signed up with a French GP. What can we do?

My family are coming over in July and need to hire a nine-seater vehicle. They are all aged over 21 and have held licences for over two years. According to French law, will they be able to hire a nine-seater?