It may be safer in France, and I am deep in the countryside. My neighbor is a researcher and works at one of the designated hospitals that's managing the response in Rouen. His wife is a nurse. The hospital in Rouen, (among others) has now been converted into a CoVid 19 isolation hospital. The works began weeks ago. They are doing their best to flatten the curve through the quarantine, while allowing people to go to the grocery store, get gas, and go to doctor's appointments, but only if they have signed a pass downloaded from the internet. It appears from the inside, the French are more organized than the states, (I'm from California). All the grocery store clerks wear masks and gloves, and there is tape on the floor marking more than 1 meter distance between people in line. That said, they are fully expecting to have the same or similar issues as Italy. And that may play out in the US as well. So in the end, maybe it doesn't really matter where one rides out the pandemic.