Travel in France

A snowHead

Are there any checks for travelling from Switzerland into France? I am thinking for children as Switzerland does not require pre-departure tests for children to enter with vaccinated parents, whereas France does? This would be quite important for lots of people (like us!) who usually fly to Geneva and then hire a car and drive to the French Alps.

A snowHead

@Weathercam, we are down in SW France at the moment and needed to get a return test for my mum who is visiting for a few days. Local pharmacy is suspending its testing for a week - no reason given. Next pharmacy was booked solid and couldn't fit her in before she left (I asked to book for our family at the end of the month but I needed the Saturday or Monday, of which Sat was booked up and Mon was unavailable as they ' only do vaccinations on a Monday....!') They gave us a phone number for a roving tester but we eventually found the required availability in a nearby town.

I'm not really surprised by this but it was a pain. The French love of process and paperwork is alive and well but you might think that they could have sharpened up a bit during Covid. They are miles behind the UK in terms of testing capability.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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The pharmacy in Les Gets was working well earlier in August for tests to return to UK. 6 days a week and also Sunday morning, no need to book and the results texted through while we were having coffee next door, and we then went and picked up the paperwork.

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@holidayloverxx, I might be missing something, but I don't think you need a test to get into Austria? Or is the airline insisting anyway?

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@Scarlet, this is to go back to the UK. Need a neg test within 72 hours of departure

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@holidayloverxx, in that case, you can get it for free in Austria. In Tirol, you can book on the state testing website – I assume its the same in Salzburg but I don't know what the URL would be.

After all it is free

@Scarlet, i can get it for €20 at my local pharmacy but it's not open Saturday. I can get it free at the messe in Salzburg but its a 2hr round trip plus the waiting/testing time. There is a red cross set up in radstadt but doesn't appear to be open every Saturday. TBH I'd rather pay the £29 and do it online to suit myself

@holidayloverxx, that company does certainly seem a good option, saving a lot of potential hassle.

Think the issue in France is just that this is the weekend when so many are traveling plus pharmacy staff are probably on holiday as well which won't help.

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@holidayloverxx, we took the https://www.c19testing.co.uk/rapidtravel/ test with us. You take the test, write the kit registration on the test cartridge, take photo of completed test and passport and upload to website. Certificate comes back within 6 to 12 hours. Very simple and a lot quicker than standing in a queue at a pharmacy.

Travelled back Calais - Dover on ferry. French passport control stamped passports and saw vaccine certs. UK passport control took 45 minutes to process the 9 cars in front of us then just waved us through with just a glance at our passports. DFDS checkin wanted to see everything, passports vaccine certs, test results and locator forms. Thankfully it wasn't busy otherwise it would have taken hours.

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Breathe Assured is who I used to leave the UK though if you have the kit before you leave the UK (for your return) I don't see why you can't use it to get back into the UK.
Online video call, took 15mins or so. Results emailed at end of call whilst on the zoom call. Was great service imo!
Also C19 do a test setup where no call is required, results are emailed.
Qured (sp) do a similar setup to Breathe Assured...with both companies doing Antigen tests for around £30!

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@Timc, thanks...I've booked that one. I found your earlier post about it

@holidayloverxx, the one mentioned by @Timc and others is also the one I just used on Friday night, for a flight back on Saturday. It was very straightforward, and I'd use them again.

You know it makes sense.

@snowhound, officially I don't believe so. Most people are obliged to fill in the plf before entering Switzerland, but there's an exemption if you're transiting - but nothing was checked for me last week (see my last few posts on this thread). I did fill in the Swiss plf anyway - it's reasonably straightforward, and you get the email/qr code almost instantly if needed (and there's an option to declare that you are transiting).

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@fixx, great thanks

A snowHead

@holidayloverxx, also ordered some C19 kits during week to bring out to France with us. Delivery was speedy. Hopefully they will do the job for our return.

Travelled Eurotunnel UK > FR yesterday (Sunday) morning. Arrived just over an hour before scheduled departure. Short queue at check-in. Pet reception was busy with quite a few dogs being processed but all seemed efficient (mixture of EU passports and AHC). After grabbing a coffee and letting the dog have some exercise, we were through passport control without too much trouble. UK just scanned and FR stamped them. He saw we had our NHS vaccine certificates in the car but didn't look at them. No other paperwork or security checks. After passport control, it was straight round to loading without needing to wait in the holding area and so all pretty good.

Drive down was straightforward but long traffic queues (around Lyon) going the other way. I guess a lot of French returning after their holidays.

A snowHead

I flew back from Geneva yesterday to Dublin, and travelled back to NI.
We were on a minibus transfer from Chamonix and weren’t stopped at the border, though they did seem to be stopping French registered cars.

Check in with Swiss at 4pm on a Sunday was a total faff - queued for a long enough time but was straightforward enough when we got to the desk. Then the security queue was also long for some weird reason.

At boarding we had to show the same documents as check-in again - passport, vaccine cert and PLF for Ireland.

No one asked for any evidence of pree-departure testing or Day 2 booking for my return to NI.

Great two weeks in France, but social distancing completely non-existent!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Flew back from GVA to MAN at 2135 last night. Haven’t flown that late from GVA before but will be getting that flight a lot in future, especially in winter, as I don’t think you need to leave Morzine much before 1800 - definitely you’ll get a full day in. We were surprised to find limited facilities at GVA open (half the restaurant was closed off and all the lounges were closed) but it was super-quiet everywhere at the airport. Hand baggage only and EJ issued mobile passes so straight to security. No queue at all.

Passports going out was a bit of a PITA but mainly due to people not keeping an eye out for when a booth became free, maybe 15-20 mins? EJ then checked passenger locator form, negative test cert and boarding pass so boarding was a bit slower than usual. Wheels touched the ground in MAN at 2226, we were through the e-gates and in the car at 2243 (hand luggage only, forgot where we’d parked…).

Pretty much every restaurant and bar asked for Passe Sanitaire, I had the French app, my mate had a pdf of his NHS QR on his phone. Both worked fine.

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Watch out for Sanglier this time of year, especially on roads lined by trees / corn. Cycled home in the early hours on Sat and one like the stock pic below ran out in front of me.
I had lights on the bike so got a good look at him....had never seen one on the road before so was surprised by the clacking of the hooves on the tarmac, and then once he crossed into the dark all I could hear was heavy snorting for a few seconds as I passed up the hill. Quite an experience in the dark.

Then today I was strimming the garden (in sandals of course as I am immune to all danger).....and uncovered this little fella. Pretty sure it's not a viper, they would have more pronounced stripes / marking, more distinct head shape and those evil looking narrow eyes / mordor style. Heard someone's dog was bitten by one recently up at 1200m, advise is to make lots of noise if wading thru long grass.

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@fixx, thanks. That's what I thought, it just struck me as odd that if the French were really serious about keeping out unvaccinated children, that is an obvious loophole to get in via Switzerland.

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Hahaha for the demands of the UK had a 2nd jab this PM which of course is not valid for 14 days so pass sanitaire now not valid and having to use old single jab one ….

Not entirely joined up thinking …

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After all it is free

Just driven back to UK from Montalbert via the tunnel - having uploaded all the required paperwork turned up as usual went through with allotted card hangar 15 mins wait to be called. French stamped passport with date leaving France, UK scanned passports as usual and then onto train.
Can only assume Eurotunnel wouldn't have let me in without uploaded documents - although we may have seen someone handing UK Border force hard copies but not sure. (signs in terminal said have documents ready- we did on phones)

Diesel is 1.40 €/l at Reims and Tournus. - off Motorway.

@LaForet, Habit, we know/like France, know/like the resorts, how to get there, where to do a big shop, driving route etc.
Oh, and £££.

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Though this thread is about travel in France, can anyone tell me what the deal is with getting a pre departure test in Germany? Mr P declared today that he might like to go via a supplier in Germany before we head back to the UK from France. The logistics mean 2 nights in or near Germany before heading to the tunnel.

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@Perty, take C19testing.com kit with you as mentioned earlier then you can test where and when you like.

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Boredsurfing, home so early?! Just when everything is quietening down. Glad your return trip went so well. Very Happy

@Jonpim, yep, a quick trip for re-assurance mainly, having not set foot in the place for 17months!

You know it makes sense.

To all scientists, is there herd immunity for influenza virus???

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

kedsky, as i understand it, not really.
The influenza virus, RNA virus like coronavirus, changes (mutates) so often and so easily that the virus we were exposed to last year is not the same as this year.

But this discussion is for another thread, not here.

A snowHead

Sooo … just been turned away from a cafe despite being fully jabbed under French system due waiter noticing yesterday’s not-actually-required-in-France jab cert Twisted Evil

Have fave’d previous fully acceptable cert so it pops up on home page, worked just fine round the corner rolling eyes

A snowHead

@under a new name, We had a couple of occasions where the waiters app wasn't the latest version. Both times the 'boss' had the latest version and all was OK

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Got home today after a visit to France. We went via Calais, a real pain from here in terms of driving but we didn't want to involve any more countries' regulations.

Places weren't entirely consistent about asking for vaccination evidence, but quite a lot did. The odd place failed to scan the UK vaccination code as correct, but because they recognised it had been accepted as valid by the French app nevertheless took it as OK (I assume they had an older version of the verification app). So thanks for the advice somewhere above about getting UK info onto TousAntiCovid.

Even though we went to the local pharmacy on our first day to book the antigen test for return, they were already fully booked in St Gervais. Happily Megeve was able to provide (thanks @Rookiescot for that advice).

No problem with border controls either going or coming. They didn't bother about car contents other than asking whether we had pets or firearms. No food issue, slightly to the irritation of my wife who had hoped to outwit them with her vegan salad mixes bought for lunch en route. Returning, it seemed some cars ahead of us in the queue must have had problems judging by the time taken, I can only assume they hadn't filled in all the required advance information; it meant we ended up on the next shuttle from the one we had booked (and for which we had by then a hanger) but that didn't seem to matter.

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@polo, How long is that "snake" ? Difficult to tell from the picture. Plain coppery coloured top and black undeside actually looks very much like a slow worm to me. Never seen one more than a foot long though.

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@j b, Thanks for the update. We're off to Saint Gervais tomorrow and will get the antigen tests booked early in case we need a trip top Megeve.

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@skitow, I reckon you are right, though it was 2 feet long when stretched out. Interesting that they are actually classified as legless lizards. Oh well, I think it’s going to be harder to shift my newly bottled “Slow Worm oil” Very Happy

Found an interesting blog on actual snakes in France…..
https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2008/03/snakes-in-france.html

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@Boredsurfing, wasn't the apps fault, waiter poorly educated/trained. And a bit of an idiot, anyway.

His app said yes when pointed at my full vaccination (tested prior infection + 1 Pfizer, May 12) which he agreed would be fine, but didn't like the fact that I had a 2nd jab 2 days ago to facilitate UK travel, so said waiter agreed that infect + 1 was the protocol but he couldn't serve me as I'd had an extra, voluntary, not required jab. And couldn't get his head around the illogic.

Discussed with bar manager chum who'd heard of it, is getting his 2nd jab for UK/US travel and won't download that cert until a week later.

I appreciate that it's a bit confusing for the hard of thinking but training should only be that a green light from the app is all that's required. rolling eyes

After all it is free

@polo, We had one of these fellas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculapian_snake in our house about 15 years ago. It was about 90 inches long. Even though they are harmless, it scared the bejesus out of me, as the previous week out cats had killed and brought in small viper (24 inches), and when I saw this snake lying motionless in the cellar I thought they were just showing off their snake hunting prowess with a bigger ( though less dangerous ) specimen. It was only when i picked it up to throw it outside, that it started moving vigourously on its own that I realised it was very much alive Smile

@WindOfChange, we had "Viper Alerts" on the radio for a few weeks early in the summer as the reduced skier traffic and weather had meant they were more numerous and more daring...

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@Snow Monkey, have a good trip, it was so nice to be back. The Megeve pharmacy we used was the one we found first - on the left of the main road as you approach Megeve centre. Parking right outside, and a lot more parking at the adjacent little supermarket. Roughly 25 euros a person.

Our visit was fairly short, with various family issues requiring us to be back by today. We really enjoyed walking in the Alps despite having spent some time in the Lake District this year, you forget how awe inspiring those huge mountains are. But we hadn't forgotten the quality of the restaurant food, we haven't visited any other French resort to match St G.

We hope to get back in the Autumn for a longer stay, once daughter is back at university. Of course we won't have the luxury of the cable cars and tramway - and no mountain coffee stops - but there are plenty of places yet to explore. And if we combine that with a bit of decorating we can cope with wet weather days.

Help!!

Travel in France

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