By Anne Swardson

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced yesterday that the French coronavirus lockdown would be extended at least two more weeks, until April 15. It was no surprise, but still. It will probably be lengthened further, he said.

Perhaps that’s why so many people were stocking up early this morning at the Poncelet street market near where I live. (Open-air markets, which set up stalls once or twice a week, have been banned, but markets on walking streets don’t jam people together as much.)

I put on the full extent of my protective gear before walking over there.

Almost all the stores were open. Shoppers were mostly on their best behavior, separating themselves by the required six feet and obeying instructions written on signs to limit the number of people inside each establishment.

In the midst of this plenty, I thought about all the people in Paris who can’t just stroll from their lovely bourgeois apartments to a fully stocked market. Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, said on Thursday that domestic violence had risen 36% in greater Paris, presumably as a result of people being cooped up in small flats.

The nation was shocked Wednesday when the disease claimed its French youngest victim, a 16-year-old named Julie. And Le Parisien newspaper ran an article today about a family of five that were living in an 11-square-meter (110 square feet) room under lockdown. The fifth member had been born just a week ago. They had been on the list for subsidized housing for four years, to no avail. Article (paywall) and video here.

Unsurprisingly, the popularity of Philippe and President Emmanuel Macron is falling. The government has been promising more tests and more protective equipment for first responders, with little to show for it. While the number of reported new cases hasn’t risen in five days, there’s no sign of a decline; about 33,000 people are stricken.  A majority of the French now think the government is handling the crisis badly, Libération newspaper said, citing polls.

In a long press conference this evening, Philippe and the health minister promised a raft of new measures and multiple web sites with the latest information on cases, testing and mortality. It would be “total transparency,” Philippe said.

The merchants on rue Poncelet are clearly braced for the long haul. In addition to requiring people to separate themselves, more and more have plastic sheets hanging between themselves and the customers. Others have placed physical barriers in front of their cash registers.

But old habits die hard. The very nice man at the cheese store picked up and cut my cheese selection with his bare hands (how do you wipe down a Brie?). And by the time I left the market, the crowds were starting to look almost like on a normal day.