No bookstores or haircuts? Europeans question pandemic edicts.

There they were, wedged between the sprinkles and the chocolate chips: a set of candles. Niamh O’Brien knew they weren’t vital to her boyfriend’s birthday celebration that evening, but they were mere inches from reach. Unfortunately, a stretch of red-and-white tape prevented her from going down this supermarket aisle; a plastic sheet draped over the shelves. 

With candles deemed a nonessential item in France’s second lockdown, Ms. O’Brien had a choice – buck the tradition this year, or duck under the tape and grab them.

“I asked the shop clerk if I could get the candles and he said no, so I asked if he could take them for me, but he said he wasn’t allowed,” says Ms. O’Brien, who was shopping in an E.Leclerc superstore in Toulouse. “So I snuck