French Beach Introduces Social Distancing For Sunbathers

A beach in France has introduced social distancing measures to keep sunbathers apart from one another.

Visitors soaking up some sun at La Grande Motte, near Montpellier, now have to book three-and-a-half-hour windows to lie on roped-off areas of the beach.

According to reports, 66 areas have been segregated for people on the popular tourist spot, all of which were snapped up within two hours of them going up.

Visitors are allowed to book slots from 9.30am to 12.30pm or 2pm to 5.30pm and beachgoers have to have their booking with them when they turn up.

However, they are also not allowed to smoke or bring their pets with them, and if they want to listen to music, it must be through headphones.

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It comes as the country starts to ease out of lockdown, which has been in place for over two months. And it's understood that the social distancing areas will in place on a trial basis until at least 2 June.

Speaking to the media in France, the firm in charge of the beach said it took inspiration from beaches in Spain that had implemented it.

However, the company behind it is cautious and says that it doesn't want to get people's hopes up.

The company's website reads: "We do not pretend to have found the perfect solution for beach lovers, but merely to test a model which allows you to put down your towel for sunbathing with maximum health protection."

This comes as beaches start to reopen across the country, with spots in the North and South reopening last weekend.

France's Interior Minister Christophe Castaner recently visited Veules-Les- Roses beach in the Normandy.

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Speaking about the changes, he said: "The virus is still around. We must learn to live with it. You can go fishing but not linger on the beach for hours,' he said - although La Grande Motte's reserved spots are a way around this.

"If the rules are not respected, we will reverse our decisions [to reopen the country's beaches]."

Over in the UK, companies are also starting to look at life after lockdown and restarting their business.

Earlier today, it was announced that - Cineworld is set to reopen all of its UK branches in July.

The chain has said that all 128 of its cinemas in the UK will be operating again, as long as government coronavirus restrictions have been lifted.

Having almost been pushed into liquidation after being forced to close when the coronavirus pandemic lockdown was started in the UK, it's been saved.

Topics: Interesting, Coronavirus, France, Health

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom