Theodore Dalrymple returns to The Telegraph with his account of life under the stringent lockdown in the French capital. This is premium content and is only available with a subscription.

Thank you to my colleague, Steve, for pointing this one out to me.

My wife and I arrived in Paris from London by Eurostar just as the barriers were going up all over Europe, as Sir Edward Grey would have put it were he alive today: whether they will come down in our lifetime, or come down fully, remains to be seen. We had come because my mother-in-law, who is Parisian, needs 24-hour care, and we were afraid that some of her carers might not be able to look after her. We ourselves, over 70, both retired doctors, were aware that we might in the near future prove the vectors of her destruction, but what else could we do?