 Poster: A snowHead
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From Monday 31st there will be tighter restrictions for those travelling to France.
Travel will only be allowed from the UK for vital reasons or motif imperieux, similar to the restrictions in place between December and March
People who are resident in France – including British residents – will not need to prove a vital reason to return to France
Anyone entering France from the UK will need to show a negative PCR or antigen test taken within the previous 48 hours (not the previous 72 hours as was previously the rule)
Arrivals should self-isolate for seven days
There was panic yesterday for us as it looked like the restrictions could be introduced immediately and we'd just sent off our tests, so I changed my tunnel booking from Sat to Friday and upgraded to Flexi-Plus, the logic being that maybe others might be doing the same so with a van and only one train an hour options might be limited?
Plus we'd only be able to leave when we get our results!
The pressure was off a little when it was announced that the rules will come into effect Monday so we have a bit more breathing space, that said if I get the results we'll go as soon as.
Hopefully the restrictions will be lifted in time for the Summer season, and in both directions, as long as the Bolton variant does not spread!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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What’s the Bolton variant? B1.617.2? (the Indian variant)?
Good luck with your travel... I haven’t lost heart for the summer season yet but loathe to put down anything that I won’t get back. Once again everything seems to be moving in the wrong direction.
Even wondering if booking for Easter hols was wise 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@Faust1, I'll report back once we "land" but I've not seen anything about further tests.
It's not an issue in France re tests as most pharmacies do the necessary tests, and no charge, and if not busy 20 min turn around.
See his message is no more ?
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Apologies, trying to edit and deleted it... grateful for any info on where the new rules can be found and the need further required tests etc. Thanks
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Rules can be found here - https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Certificate-of-international-travel
But note, the page has yet to be updated
====
A tweet from France Diplomacy
France Diplomacy
@francediplo_EN
·
2h
France government organization
As of Monday, there are new conditions for people arriving from the United Kingdom #COVID19
Compelling reason for travel required for non-resident foreign nationals
PCR or antigen test dated less than 48h (and no longer 72h) for all
7 day self-isolation
@CBeaune
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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So what a stress fest that was!
Sent off PCR tests Wed (Eurofins) - the plan was hopefully to travel Friday if results came through Thursday, if not the original plan of Sat.
OH's results came through 18:00 Thursday but not mine, so Friday departure ruled out, still no results by Noon Friday, so started to panic a little and sent an email which was answered, but their response was if no results come by Sat then contact them again, to which I responded saying that would be useless as we were travelling Saturday and if I waited till then the result would be more than 72hrs old!
Few hours later, result came in and was marked as "invalid" now panic really set in!
I had already made a photoshop back-up just in case, but I thought that at least I should try and get an Antigen test, so mad ringing around pharmacies and found one that could do it, so cycled 10km over there in rush-hour.
The Pharmacist said that Antigen tests were ok for Eurotunnel and I though that was wrong but on checking that was true, so that was a relief, but he knew I was over a barrel and he ripped me off to the tune of £100 for a test that in a French Pharmacy is free!
On getting back home the OH was then panicking as if you look at the Eurotunel page at
https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/travelling-with-us/latest/covid-19/
and the Legal requirements
A negative COVID test
Customers aged 11 and older travelling on our passenger service require a negative result from a non-NHS PCR or Antigen test taken in the previous 48 hours. At French border controls you will need to present digital or paper evidence of the negative result provided by the test provider.
Now does that mean that the PCR test should be within 48hrs or that they should have put a coma after PCR and that it is only the Antigen test ????
So along with the various other documentation needed we arrive at Eurotunnel ironically getting the same train that I'd booked before I upgraded to Flexiplus and that too was ironic as the Flexiplus lane was closed due to Covid restrictions!!
Once through UK Border patrol there was another UK Eurotunnel check for one document which is one you sign as the driver and for the passengers confirming you have all the correct paper-work, then on to the French Border Patrol.
Here I proudly announce that we have French residency and show him our printed copies which he takes and along with our passports notes the numbers from the CDS but still stamps our passports, when I ask why he does a classic Gallic shrug and says "Obligatoire"
He then says Covid and we go to give him the paperwork and he just waves his hand and lets us on through 
So that was us, humans, the dogs, also entailed a bit of a story as well which I'll write up.
Had other friends travelling yesterday, one set arrived for their early departure at the tunnel only to find out that there was a power failure and unlikely to be any service all day, so they hot-footed to the ferry and evidently did not have their passports stamped, one is Irish and her hubby UK so work that one out?
The Flexiplus lounge was only open for food and drinks so we grabbed a fair amount, and that too was ironic as we took Ham and Cheese sandwiches 
Next time we're going to take all our usual food rations as on Eurotunnel there are no obvious French custom checks for that, though famous last words?
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| Weathercam wrote: |
The Pharmacist said that Antigen tests were ok for Eurotunnel and I though that was wrong but on checking that was true, so that was a relief, but he knew I was over a barrel and he ripped me off to the tune of £100 for a test that in a French Pharmacy is free!
Here I proudly announce that we have French residency and show him our printed copies which he takes and along with our passports notes the numbers from the CDS but still stamps our passports, when I ask why he does a classic Gallic shrug and says "Obligatoire"
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You must have a charity pharmacy because you have to buy antigen tests at the pharmacies around Grenoble although they are not 100 quid.
They stamp your passport so they can check how long you are spending in the country if necessary as people who have recently got French residency actually need to be resident.
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Its a clever variant this Indian one, in that it only transmits in people arriving from outside the EU............................
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Weathercam, 48 hours for a PCR test result is very tricky to align with travel dates & times, if you have the test at Boots there is a daily collection time so having the test at 8am when the swabs are collected at 2pm is not much help.
I ended up two tests from different places just in case one didn’t turn up in time or was void, even booked a Heathrow airport hotel over night that did a 24 hour test as part of the room package.
It really was quite stressful as I couldn’t risk messing the travel up for a failed PCR test.
Covid is a bitch 
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| Skimum1 wrote: |
What’s the Bolton variant? B1.617.2? (the Indian variant)?
Good luck with your travel... I haven’t lost heart for the summer season yet but loathe to put down anything that I won’t get back. Once again everything seems to be moving in the wrong direction.
Even wondering if booking for Easter hols was wise |
I’m still reasonably confident for the summer. We’re supposed to be going in August and I’m about to extend it by a week too. Fingers crossed!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I’m hoping it’s all sorted by the summer too. I’m moving to Andorra to work. At the moment I have no idea when to head out as everything is up in the air. I’d visit in advance to sort out somewhere to live, but can’t do that at the moment with all the quarantine regulations in place.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Has anyone approached their local Mairie for an Attestaion D'Accueil ?
We spoke to our Mairie and they didn't have a clue.
Hoping to hear back from them later today.
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Quite frankly,  them.
France off the list for some time.
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You know it makes sense.
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Not sure if this a change of policy or not, but The Guardian is reporting that
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Travellers from the UK will have to provide “compelling reasons” to enter France from Monday, as French authorities tighten curbs to halt the spread of the Indian Covid variant.
Travel to France from the UK will be permitted only for EU nationals, French residents, or those travelling for essential reasons. |
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I dont have too much of an issue with a country notionally closing off borders trying to keep clear of newly identified variants.
However, it is clear that no strain of CV19 remains as is and its almost inevitable that there are new variants ripping through mainland Europe right now - but of course they dont know as they dont sequence............so the notion that "its ok to travel inter-EU" but not from the UK is laughable.
I am beginning to think that the only real conclusion we can reach in this crisis is that there are very few western governments going to come through the other side with their reputation even close to intact.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@GreenDay, careful, you'll go to hell for suggesting that 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@GreenDay, everyone I speak to, French or English, round here says they think it's purely political.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| under a new name wrote: |
| @GreenDay, everyone I speak to, French or English, round here says they think it's purely political. |
It's odd though, because if a new variant starts to go round Europe due to travel relaxation, they will just end up looking daft.
As I said above, I am not singling out France, most countries in our region are making decisions which appear to be made up on the hoof.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Weathercam, hadn't spotted the 11 years and up bit earlier. Thanks for the tip. Still got our fingers crossed for August. It will be a year since we have been in our place and I am trying not to worry. It feels less certain then this time last year, I think because we now know more and the likelihood of new variants.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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EU nationals resident in UK are also able to travel to France without a vital reason.
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I'm sure this move is motivated by internal French politics, but I'm also still pretty confident that things will change mid July, to coincide with the school holidays. Tourism is a such a big part of the French economy, and given where both countries are*, and are likely to by mid JulyAugust/, with the vaccination programme, not allowing tourists will go down badly I suspect.
*The French have really ramped up their roll out recently and are projected to be roughly neck in neck with the UK in August. Anecdotally, by brother (lives near Biarritz) got his invite the other day. He clicked on the link almost immediately and all the local slots had been snapped up, which would suggest take up is better than previously feared.
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This is copied from the Torygraph/Pro Brexit but makes a good read.
France's travel ban is really just spiteful Macron's latest Brexit punishment. He'll regret it
Britain is being singled out for a travel ban because we are actively looking for variants where others are not
In the week ending 17 May - the last for which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has complete data to compare across national borders - the UK had 12,466 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and France had 82,237.
Have a guess, then, which country has imposed an almost complete travel ban on the other.
That’s right: France has closed its borders with Britain for everyone except those with the most ‘compelling reasons’. Tourists, people travelling to visit family members and for most work-related reasons will be turned away.
The stated reason is that France is concerned about the spread of the Indian variant in Britain. But then why have EU citizens been exempted from the travel ban?
If President Macron was really concerned about the Indian variant, and genuinely believed that it was confined to Britain rather than already spreading elsewhere in Europe, surely the last thing he would want was to admit to France, say, a Polish citizen who has been living in Bolton. Neither would he want Irish citizens travelling through Britain in order to reach France. They would be banned along with anyone who had spent time in Britain in recent weeks.
Even more to the point, if Macron is worried about variants and wants to prevent them spreading throughout France, you might think that his first priority would be to ensure that his own public health authorities were taking the trouble to sequence samples from confirmed cases of Covid-19. Without doing that, it is impossible to tell what variants are in circulation, and in what numbers.
Yet the latest data published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control shows that in week 19 of 2021 just 0.7 per cent of new cases in France were sequenced to establish what variant they were. In Britain, 50 per cent of cases are now sequenced.
Neither Macron nor anyone else knows whether Britain really is a hotspot for the Indian variant, nor the true extent of its spread in the EU.
What we do know is that there is a much higher chance of variants being picked up in Britain than in other European countries because we are carrying out far more sequencing here. Among EU countries only Denmark, where three quarters of new cases have been sequenced in some recent weeks, carries out as extensive surveillance for new variants as does Britain.
In many countries, sequencing appears to be wound down: in Germany in recent weeks the percentage sequenced has fallen from 7.5 per cent to 1.2 per cent, while in Spain it has fallen from three percent to zero percent.
Shouldn’t Macron be fretting about this black hole of data and using his power to say, come on, let’s sort out the EU’s system for monitoring new variants?
We are being singled out for a travel ban because we are actively looking for variants where others are not.
And not for the first time: Macron did the same in December, slamming the doors shut on Britain because of the discovery of the ‘Kent’ variant when no-one really knows whether it originated in Britain or not. The geographical position of Kent must at least raise some question as to whether it really did originate here or in some unmonitored hollow in the near-Continent.
But then is France’s travel ban on British citizens really about Covid variants at all?
Circumstantial evidence rather points at it being just one more campaign in his ongoing war to try to punish us for Brexit.
At every stage of the Brexit process he was trying to make sure we got the worst deal possible, right down to blocking the borders altogether in the last week of negotiations in December.
Then, of course, we had the business of the fishing blockade of Jersey, which the French authorities did little to dissuade.
If that is the game Macron wants to play, then fine. We can go on holiday elsewhere. But the people he will be damaging most will be those who work in France’s own tourist industry.
Look how keen Spain is to open up its borders to British tourists. The mayors of Mediterranean resorts know what side their bread is buttered.
Macron, on the other hand, seems perfectly happy to throw restauranteurs and Chateau-owners to the wall, just out of spite, or as part of some doomed grand plan to try to force us back into the EU. If that is the way France is going, it is heading for a very dark age.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Meanwhile, The Guardian (no paywall, btw) is reporting the EU's latest announcement of waiving of quarantine for those who are fully-vaccinated, to be implemented 1st July.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Tue 1-06-21 12:26; edited 4 times in total
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It's election year and he's worried about having to spend more time at home
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| LaForet wrote: |
| Meanwhile, The Guardian is reporting the EU's latest announcement of waiving of quarantine for those who are fully-vaccinated, to be implemented 1st July. No paywall, BTW. |
That sounds hopeful. My wife and will both be double jabbed before we’re due to go. Hopefully we’ll just need a negative test for the kids.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Are the rules now imposed by the French government largely the same as the exiting rules of the UK government ?
What’s all the fuss?
...Unless you happen to believe in Johnson’s assertion everything will be back to normal according to his timetable.
Got my 2D-DOC, one in UK, one in France (local chemist gave heads up for unused dose). Off to finale Ligure tomorrow with uk van plates let’s see how that works out...
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| Timmycb5 wrote: |
| LaForet wrote: |
| Meanwhile, The Guardian is reporting the EU's latest announcement of waiving of quarantine for those who are fully-vaccinated, to be implemented 1st July. No paywall, BTW. |
That sounds hopeful. My wife and will both be double jabbed before we’re due to go. Hopefully we’ll just need a negative test for the kids. |
Don't get your hopes up, it's only for EU citizens in the member states. Us lowly 3rd country folk may have to wait longer 
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You know it makes sense.
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| halfhand wrote: |
| Timmycb5 wrote: |
| LaForet wrote: |
| Meanwhile, The Guardian is reporting the EU's latest announcement of waiving of quarantine for those who are fully-vaccinated, to be implemented 1st July. No paywall, BTW. |
That sounds hopeful. My wife and will both be double jabbed before we’re due to go. Hopefully we’ll just need a negative test for the kids. |
Don't get your hopes up, it's only for EU citizens in the member states. Us lowly 3rd country folk may have to wait longer |
Yeah, but I suspect it'll be rolled out for us soon anyway. UK tourism to France is pretty large (worth about €4bn IIRC), so they won't want to miss out on that just for political reasons.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Timmycb5, you certainly have. One cut short in March 2020, unable to travel in Sept 2020 as we had to quarantine on return. No chance at Christmas 2020 or March 2021, and our Eurotunnel far is now a voucher I have until March 2022 to spend.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
| @Timmycb5, you certainly have. One cut short in March 2020, unable to travel in Sept 2020 as we had to quarantine on return. No chance at Christmas 2020 or March 2021, and our Eurotunnel far is now a voucher I have until March 2022 to spend. |
we went in Feb before it all kicked off, and managed to get away in August before quarantine was brought in. Just flukes timing.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Timmycb5, we couldn't travel in July/August due to other stuff going on which was unfortunate.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I’m thinking our mid August trip to Alps won’t happen.
Will know nearer the time but I think travel abroad this year will be scuppered again come July.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Boris wrote: |
I’m thinking our mid August trip to Alps won’t happen.
Will know nearer the time but I think travel abroad this year will be scuppered again come July. |
Sadly my hopes level are also now rather low
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@Boris, I'm thinking that too, and haven't even got round to looking at travel options. Second homes are no longer essential reasons for travel either.
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@Hells Bells, is maintenance and upkeep of second homes an option?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Do you have anything more on that Hells Bells re second homes not being a compelling reason? We are due to go to our place in July. Can’t see it happening but would go if we could.
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@Ghanny, it was mentioned in an article I read earlier. I'll try and find it again. We may be OK, as we actually rent ours out, so it is a business not just a second home.
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FAQ
