Madrid

Paula Perez, a 19-year-old medical student who lives in a Madrid apartment with her mother, said she was "very moved" the first time she heard the applause for health workers.

In their little 50-square-metre (538-square-foot) apartment, they follow the same ritual every evening: at 8:00 pm, after the applause, neighbours speak to one another out of their windows.

"Our neighbour above works in a hospital and tells us what's happening," said Perez.

Spaniards are under strict lockdown and can only leave home to work if they can't do so at home, buy medicines or food, or to briefly walk the dog.

Madrid's usually crowded streets are now practically empty. Instead, people play music from their balconies or have lottery parties with their neighbours, shouting out numbers from one window to the other.

Perez's mother Maria Jimenez, 48, an agricultural engineer, works remotely from a table in the front room after all her work visits were cancelled.

She speaks every day to her elderly parents in a village in the southern region of Andalucia, while worrying about her siblings, some of whom work in health or for the police. She adds that sometimes she feels "guilty" of being "useless".

"I read the newspapers on the internet, we watch the TV news over dinner," adds Perez, "but I don't want to think about the epidemic all day: that makes me anxious."

Paris

Baptiste Saude, a freelance documentary director in his 30s who lives in Paris, says that the "most difficult thing is the absence of any social life".

Normally he would play sport or see friends in the evening, but since the lockdown he's been experimenting with a "Skype apero" -- an evening drink via video call -- with other locked down friends.

France last week adopted similar rules to Italy and Spain except that going out for some "physical activity" is allowed. Violators face a fine of 135 euros.

Saude says he, at least, has previous experience of being under lockdown while he was in the French military on a base in Mali.

He's also helping elderly people in his neighbourhood by calling them for a chat, for example 84-year-old Odile, whom he helps to record herself doing scales for a remote piano lesson.

Read also: 5 European Movies That Will Remind You Of Its Magic

London

Ben Morales Frost, a composer based in southeast London, is using his self-enforced quarantine to spearhead a global music initiative called "lockdown orchestra".

He said that for most musicians "suddenly, the rug's been pulled from underneath them".

"So I thought it'd be quite nice to set up a virtual orchestra," he added.

Britain has implemented a less stringent shutdown compared to its European neighbours, but last week ramped up its response, closing schools and then ordering all cafes, pubs and restaurants to close until further notice.

Following an appeal to musicians shuttered in their homes around the world, Frost has recruited more than 500 -- enough to staff seven full-size orchestras -- on six continents to collaborate on a piece of music he recently wrote.

They will send him clips that he'll then edit together with a remote team, before the virtual concert goes on YouTube on Friday.

"It's gone nuts actually -- I did not expect that at all."