By Dana Thomas @ WashingtonPost.com, April 20

SAINT-TROPEZ, France — [....] Some individuals are hiding out in state-of-the-art bunkers. Some have leased seaside mansions to hunker down for the duration. In the Grenadines, billionaire entertainment mogul David Geffen posted pictures on Instagram from his 454-foot megayacht, Rising Sun, replete with a tone-deaf “hoping everybody is staying safe” message.

And here in this Riviera resort — one of Geffen’s favorite summer ports of call — a gated compound of some of the world’s richest people has its very own, very private testing site.

Set in the director’s office of the 270-acre Les Parcs de Saint-Tropez — where LVMH luxury group chairman Bernard Arnault, Ritz Paris owner Mohamed al-Fayed and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal have palatial villas — the medical unit is staffed with a doctor and lab technician to take and process samples from residents and their friends. Details were leaked to the regional newspaper, the Var-Matin, which reported that the effort was organized by Les Parcs’ association president, Jean-Louis Oger. The wealthy pharmacist-turned-entrepreneur owns several clinics and laboratories in the south of France [....]

Across France [...] most public hospitals are overwhelmed with covid-19 patients. Tests are in short supply or are completely inaccessible. Outside the compound’s walls, the situation is not much different at the Pôle de Santé du Golfe de Saint-Tropez hospital.

Medical personnel are “scandalized,” according to one hospital doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue on the peninsula. “It’s not normal that we have nothing — no tests — and that it is a nightmare for us to get a hold of one.” [....]