Originally from Riom-ès-Montagnes in Cantal, Sébastien Serre studied at the hotel school in Chamalières. With a BTS in hospitality in hand, Sébastien first opened a business in his Cantal town before leaving for a luxury hotel in Montreux, Switzerland.
Five years later an opportunity presented itself to him to join the United States. First Massachusetts, then Connecticut and finally New York. “A fascinating city teeming with people and which lives 24 hours a day”.
“The city has become silent. We only hear ambulance sirens “
Sébastien Serre
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But today, the arrival of the Covid-19 epidemic has given the Big Apple a whole different face. Times Square is animated by the only neon signs and Wall Street is deserted. “It’s amazing, the streets are empty and for the first time the city is silent. We only hear the sound of sirens from ambulances and firefighters, ”says Sébastien.
The atmosphere is heavy: “We no longer meet anyone. I live in a building of five hundred apartments, with a gym and a rooftop which have become inaccessible due to confinement. Access to the building is forbidden to all outsiders and we can no longer have packages or meals delivered ”.
Sébastien, who took his meals outside, had to change his habits “I went shopping for three weeks in a mini-market near my home. I want to go out as little as possible because here the virus is developing very quickly ”.
“The hardest part is not knowing”
The authorities have been slow to take into account the scale of the problem. “At the start of the week, the state had more than 130,000 infected people and between 500 and 700 new deaths in 24 hours, staggering figures.
The news is alarming but New Yorkers have taken the measure of the disaster. The better-off have gone to second homes, the others remain confined to their apartments ”.
A native of Laroquebrou Cantal), expatriate in China, he sends 1,000 protective masks to his town
Today, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of the State of New York and Bill de Blasio, the mayor of the city, want to be reassuring, “I think they made the right decisions”.
Sébastien takes advantage of this time of confinement to update himself on French films and series.
In Manhattan, where the Franco-American lives, the cases are fewer than in other neighborhoods.
“Queens have been hit the hardest. In this very popular district, there are sometimes two to three families per apartment, which has led to lightning contamination. Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, the authorities opened hospitals to the entire population, including those without insurance, which contributed to saturating services. Today, hospitals are at full capacity with the opening of many beds ”.
The most difficult for Sébastien “is not knowing what will happen or how long it will last”. Assistant restaurant manager at the Millenium Hilton located near the United Nations, he was fired on March 19.
“We were one of the first hotels affected by the virus. The women’s conference scheduled to be held at the United Nations was canceled on March 3.
$ 300,000 in sales lost in one week
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In one day our customers canceled. We lost $ 300,000 in sales in one week. From March 13, we were only 3% of the occupancy rate, which led to my dismissal ”.
A word that does not have the same meaning as in France. Sébastien is still part of the company but he is an “inactive employee”. He still has social coverage, receives state unemployment and federal government assistance which represents 50% of his salary. He hopes to return to his job at the end of confinement if it is not too long.
“I work in a large group that has strong backs, but that won’t be the case for everyone.”
In the meantime, he takes care of himself as best he can: “I take this opportunity to update myself on French films and series that I don’t have the opportunity to watch in normal times. “
Muriel Pommerol
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