[Closed] Chance of quarantine being applied to France???

I'm off to France at end of August and we are hoping that it will be localised quarantines based on where you have visited/stayed (if any at all).

I'd be either cancelling altogether, or trimming my itinerary for a "plan b" trip that gets back to England around 16th August, allowing for 14 day quarantine.

Spanish levels are well below english levels. that was a purely political decision not one based on science. On that basis I would not trust this shower of imbeciles we have playing at running the country not to make some stupid decision.

this is why I will not be leaving scotland this year

I wouldn’t chance it. More importantly, I wouldn’t make any plans to travel past the end of August. Once the school holidays are gone, and enraging voters becomes less likely, ‘quarantine’ will start to become the norm this autumn and winter, I suspect.

not to make some stupid decision

Singling out the whole of Spain is a stupid decision, maybe, but getting people not to mix in public or at work after travelling in a plane full of people who’ve been on their jollies seems wise. Getting into a plane full of Brits right now, going to and from anywhere, even internal flights, is reckless… unless you act to prevent any possible infection going no further than your household afterwards.

We've got eldest in France already.

We've planned a voluntary quarantine here when he returns - he's got a fortnight in his room and own loo etc.

Would you chance it?

No

We're driving to France next week, will just see what happens.....

We arrived in France 2 days ago and are down in the Lot (Department 46) in the southwest. Low infection/death rates here and pretty rural. Driving down including overnight stop near Orleans there seemed a lot of adherence to the rules which was good. Having said that, rates are on the increase in France overall so no idea what will happen regarding a blanket quarantine or region based or none.

We're due back on 26th August.... being retired the quarantine wouldn't be a show stopper for us but I really sympathise for the majority who will have jobs and children to consider. A tough call in what to do.

Tbh, we wouldn't have come over now other than we have a house that we closed down for winter last October and it needs a bit of tlc.

Btw, around 38 degrees here at the moment... the Route d'Occitanie stage 4 comes just down the road for us in a few days... a strong Ineos team I understand... Sivakov, Bernal, Froome,  Amador, Castroviejo, Tao Geoghegan Hart, van Baarle

I really hope not as my parents have flights booked mid September and it'll be the first time I've seen them since Christmas. They live in the middle of rural France so no nearby cases at all so very low risk. Having said that if I was going there I wouldn't have booked it in the first place and I'm happy to just stay in the country rather than risk either contracting or inadvertently spreading it. I'd be much happier if they were driving straight to me and staying for the week before then carrying on to see my brother and his family.

We're due to be going to stay with family in the Alps in France the week after next. Driving down via the tunnel, so very little contact with others, and then it's just family at the other end.

I am expecting there to be a quarantine edict just before we go - not for any reason, just because it would be ruddy typical!

Spanish levels are well below english levels

while the absolute numbers may be higher in England, the rate of increase is, I think, far worse in Spain

Spain's currently seeing about 2000 cases per day, roughly 3x numbers in England - and with a smaller population too. Though this isn't a huge difference in the great scheme of things. Imported cases aren't a significant factor in the UK at the moment.

[img] [/img]

Heading to France tomorrow morning. You just can't tell what the idiots in charge are going to do as they seem to have gone from being guided by "The Science" to completely ignoring it and all reason if a three phrase slogan or sweeping decision gets people to look the other way from what's going on in this country. We'll be back in time to quarantine before the kids head back to school and can both work from home with no issues but you might want to plan on cutting the trip short if they put a quarantine in place when you're away.

Not sure what criteria the government utilise to justify dissolving an air bridge but...

France in the past week, 6,466 cases of coronavirus have been reported, along with 58 deaths.

It could be a coincidence but........... the Brexit negotiations aren't going that well and the Govt fell out with Barnier over fishing rights last week. Where is the biggest demand for fish?...erm Spain. I think it's easy to conflate these things but I see a link.

Also, the Govt said they'd quarantine France last month. France said they would reciprocate. Where do most of our goods come from...trucks via France. The Govt backed down.

Expect more Brexshit ideological shenanigans in the coming weeks and months from Cummings' Govt. These clowns just can't help themselves.

Youngest daughter is travelling through France today on the start of her months Alps trip.
If she needs to quarantine when she gets back it will be the tent, bucket and hose pipe on the garden, barbi to cook on.

If you don't want to do the time don't do the crime, or something like that.

If you can't deal with potential 2 weeks quarantine on return then don't go anywhere, and I mean anywhere outside of the UK

There was always a real possibility that any foreign trips this year may require quarantine with little advance warning.

Anyone thinking otherwise was naive, I feel.

Keep the punters in the country keep their money in the country. France is probably next on the list, but fewer travellers go there than Spain.

I’ve been in France for the last 2 weeks and to be honest would rather stay here than come back to the UK. Far better organised I shops and public places, people observing the rules and just getting on with life. It all feels very normal apart from the masks

I’ve been in France for the last 2 weeks and to be honest would rather stay here than come back to the UK. Far better organised I shops and public places, people observing the rules and just getting on with life. It all feels very normal apart from the masks

This. We we were there for a couple of weeks just now, and we're heading back next weekend, if it's still possible.

I can't see them applying a total quarantine to France, there would be exemptions ,eg.for those transporting goods, like earlier in the year.

So make sure you're carrying a bootful of booze, for your local, on the way back and you will be fine.

.. And cheese!!

This lot are literally making it up on the hoof, with zero logic to their decision-making

It’s completely arbitrary. Or more than likely, as noted, Cummings playing silly buggers for Brexit-related political reasons

Quarantining people coming from the Canaries because of an outbreak in Barcelona is like quarantining the Falkland Islands because of what’s happening in Leicester.

It makes absolutely no sense. Par for the course with this shower of imbeciles

There’s no way I would be leaving the country to go anywhere at the moment, because Whether you’ll be quarantined or not on return is a total lottery with Dominic Cummings pulling out the balls

I'm driving down to my sister's house in the Pyrenees next Wednesday. If the put a quarantine in place before we go, we'll have to sack it off.

If they put one in place while we're there we'll just have to suck it up. We're working from home any way, but kids won't be able to play out!!

https://twitter.com/luckyma_man/status/1288788138370924546

Just do what you want, seems the gov haven't a clue

I must be missing something here, but how does anyone know if you're quarantining on your return or not ?

Big Brother is watching you!

The original France/England reciprocal quarantine was technically voluntary I believe. Not sure if the current Spain one is different.

Personally have two trips to France in the calendar that I'm nervous about.
- Borrowing a friends house on Ile de Re as we do every year at the end of August for 10 days. Driving down and would have very limited contact with anyone, and could probably quarantine on return if we absolutely had to (kids would miss the first two weeks of school though).
- ...and a bloody Eurodisney trip at the end of September (postponed from March as was originally booked the week Disney ended up shutting their doors). We are going to loose a load of money on that one if we cancel or move it again, so currently planning to go ahead if we can - certainly not going to be 2 hr queues for rides if we get there!

I must be missing something here, but how does anyone know if you’re quarantining on your return or not ?

You have to fill in a form and presumably someone somewhere checks this against actual travel records, and then follows up (in some cases) with a check to see whether you're at home etc.

I’m Sat on a campsite in the vendee about 2 hours north of ile de re right now.

Ironically the guy on the pitch next door owns a hotel somewhere in wales that has just had a guest test positive! So go figure....

Personally we are glad we came out a week ago. We thought we’d head out as soon as poss and hopefully squeak a quick holiday in before anything changed again. It’s felt very safe and organised here as others have mentioned with compulsory masks and decent distancing everywhere. Ferry was very organised and no interaction with anyone else.

Suspect my chances of catching it are higher at home given the huge influx of staycationers over the last couple of weeks!

If you don’t fancy traveling to France because of the quarantine risk then fair enough but I wouldn’t let the risk of the virus itself stop you at the moment!

(I’m also lucky that both me and Mrs Ceepers have a health professional quarantine dodge if necessary anyway)

Basically no one knows. The Times had a cover story last week that said "All Foreign Travel A Risk". You might go there and it all be fine, or it all kicks off and you have to quarantine. People don't seem to have got this- Covid isn't over, foreign travel is allowed but not a good idea and you might not be able to go if you've booked something.

Are you obliged to take unpaid leave if you're isolating? That doesn't sound right or fair to me. While I wouldn't travel abroad anyway based on the possibility of the whole thing being canned and my insurance not covering it, surely you should be able to work from home if you can't go to work?

I must be missing something here, but how does anyone know if you’re quarantining on your return or not ?

That's the very question that the BBC Breakfast guy asked Handjob in the video above. When a softball guy like Charlie has you on the ropes you know you're doing a pretty poor job!

We're heading off to France today, so I've been following this very closely for the last week. We're fortunate that a quarantine wouldn't be a big issue for us. I've been more concerned by the impact than an FCO travel ban before departure would have on insurance. Given that we're heading to an area with minimal cases, and we're going via car/tunnel, I'd be happy to travel for as long as we're welcome in the destination and can get insured, regardless of what the FCO advise.

The rumour for the last few days has been Luxembourg, Belgium and Croatia are next, and Luxembourg have now been given the Spain treatment.

I do believe that these restrictions are grounded in real figures, but the spikes that are driving them are highly localised which makes country-wide restrictions hard to justify.

can get insured, regardless of what the FCO advise

That is the key point for us. Our travel insurance won't cover us if the FCO advises against travel due to CV, so if they 'do a Spain' on France, we won't go.

http://www.voyagerinsurance.com/ <= these people provide cover even if the FCO say no, but I've confirmed that won't cover uplift-based mountain biking.

I'm now insured with insureandgo, who now provide a surprisingly good level of cover for covid-related stuff. Interestingly the literal reading of their policy wording says that FCO advice is only relevant at time of booking or buying insurance, but they've told me verbally that (unsurprisingly) they wouldn't cover claims if you travel against FCO advice.

What's annoying is that the FCO bans are due to the virus, which mostly isn't covered by insurance anyway, but they invalidate your entire policy. i.e. if I break myself mountain biking, I'm not covered because the FCO were worried about coronavirus.

So suppose you live up north in the new restricted zone and you have a holiday booked.
Can you travel?

As far as I can see, yes.

I wish I had the cash to even consider a holiday, lucky you. But if I could, I'd be holed up somewhere in rural France, which is a lot safer than here.

Why any country would want the Brits to come beats me.......arh yes! cash, its all about cash.

@ceepers - what is this healthcare professional quarantine dodge you're referring to?

@elshalimo as “registered healthcare professionals” we were told last week we wouldn’t have to.

Who knows if that will stand I guess. They all seem to be making it up as they go Along!

Can you travel?

As far as I can see, yes.

And if you can't see, it'll be perfectly OK to drive there, so long as you're going for an eye test 😉

@elshalimo as “registered healthcare professionals” we were told last week we wouldn’t have to.

Who knows if that will stand I guess. They all seem to be making it up as they go Along!

I heard this point raised on my county wide Resilience Forum meeting yesterday (think lots of civil servants, government officers and public health officials) and the response from those responsible for this policy area said it was utter b***ocks. Of course that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

but they invalidate your entire policy. i.e. if I break myself mountain biking, I’m not covered because the FCO were worried about coronavirus.

I'd be very surprised if that stood up to the Ombudsman? Even 20 years ago you couldn't turn down a fire claim because the burglar alarm hadn't been turned on, for example, so I'd expect a Covid related exclusion to only relate to a Covid issue.

It's all a total shower of sh%t... I have just returned from 6 months in Madeira. The island is essentially Covid-free, and the FCO have recognised by adjusting their travel advisory to allow travel there, BUT BoJo's ****less team have decided to ignore their own FCO and enforce quarantine on those returning from the island... nice way to treat your long-time allies.

Just 24 more hours to go until I am free to leave the house. It can't come soon enough as I am almost bankrupt through buying new bikes and bike parts and while my wife is still in Madeira, I have pretty much sold everything in the house on Ebay to stop myself going crazy.

What about the scenario if using the tunnel to get back from say Belgium, so you travel through France but never actually get out if the car. Or what if you say stayed in Switzerland but crossed in to France for a few hours whilst in the mountains?
I know what my good old fashioned British common sense would say...

Thanks all for thoughts.

I am WFH but employer has said would have to take unpaid leave if have to quarantine. This is because those that do have to go into somewhere to work in my company couldn’t if quarantining and would have to take unpaid leave. It isn’t very fair if their is one set of rules for those that go into work and those that can WFH.

Still dithering. Would only lose crossing cost so no great loss.

@campalumpa im in exaclt same boat, i see the point, but trying to argue this with the missus is a struggle - supposed to be going on the 13th down near to La Rochelle..

Fair point rasied about the Tunnel - as the quarantine is applied as you come back through - do they actually check where you were first??

I am WFH but employer has said would have to take unpaid leave if have to quarantine. This is because those that do have to go into somewhere to work in my company couldn’t if quarantining and would have to take unpaid leave.

Not wanting to cause trouble for you with your work, but how would they know if you were quarantining or not if your role was exclusively WFH?

Fair point rasied about the Tunnel – as the quarantine is applied as you come back through – do they actually check where you were first??

My brother came back from Paris as foot passenger on Eurostar last week and from France to UK was required to fill in a long form on the UK gov website with details of where he'd been for the previous 2 weeks, and where he would be for the next 2. UK Border Force wouldn't let them through without showing the completion certificate on his phone.

Don't know if the same is now required when coming off the Tunnel in a car when passing through the control gates.

(Nothing was required from UK to France)

Well they wouldn’t if I didn’t tell anyone and didn’t post anything on Strava/social media. Partner is a social media junkie who would find 3 weeks without stealth boasts hard.

Plus I am quite senior so should
Be seen to be doing the right thing.

my old man lives in france , runs a bed and breakfast with my mum.

He drove up last saturday - is living with us albe it in our camper van.

when he crossed at newhaven he filled in the form.....

There has been no check to see if any of what he wrote was true...... just wanted the completed form.

I wouldnt be surprised if some of the Spanish decision was at the request of Spain to try and dissuade people from going thereas they don't want people from a country that has handled it as bad as we have going there.

ElShalimo's first post on this thread has it. I don't think Barnier is going to realease any documents for a while so I don't expect a quatorzaine.

Places to avoid at present because of tourist density and a risk of stupidity: St Jean de Luz, Biarritz, Bayonne, Biscarrosse, Sable-d'Olonne, Lorient, St Malo... .

There is always a chance of quarantine being applied to France. At the moment you are probably safe, but next week - who knows.

We rightly give the Government for confused messages, but just image the confusion if they tried to breakdown a country by region by region with different rules. Some idiots would no doubt holiday in a region with high levels of infection and they go to an airport in other region with lower levels to avoid any quarantine. How do you cope with those idiots?

I do agree that the Spanish islands for direct flights should have a better approach, since they are isolated. But again too many idiots would them demand the same 'rights' for other parts of Spain. You really can't win.

@sadmadlan, do you realize the borders are essentially unpatrolled and totally open? The same thing you say for region goes for countries. Now you can fly to France, drive to me, drive back to France and go home. Or really substitute and country or list of countries there. And the smearing of the borders is incredible, so many people back and forth every day for work, eating, short holidays, riding, shopping etc. It really makes a mockery of trying to divide it up by country. The final thing is that there is zero control, who knows where everyone has been? Nobody, is the truth. The number of British cars in Spain just now is high, but the number of French, Dutch and Swiss is much higher. Like I say, specifying a region is just as uncontrollable as specifying a country within the EU. Contact tracing and testing would be sensible. In Vancouver restaurants and hotels and some other places are required to record peoples ids in a central database so contact tracing can happen. It seems a much more sensible approach.

@andyl I think the major disagreement over Gibraltar a few hours before was a more likely reason.

Reuters have just posted these figures for France average new cases per day, for June 435, July 746, the first 3 days of August 1125.

Don’t know if the same is now required when coming off the Tunnel in a car when passing through the control gates.

We came back through the tunnel last week and the Borderfarce deskjockey wanted to see our completed forms on our phones before letting us in.

Which is lower than the last three days of July, Robert, and manageable in terms of test and trace.

Doug is right about how frontiers have become blurred, in the last month I've dined with people in France, German and Poland, and the most recent meal out was with Spanish from the Basque country (as opposed to Basques 😉 ). The places I've had to leave my contact details apart from hotels and campsites have been quite limited: Pau stade nautique, the Bundestag, a restaurant in Bavaria, a museum in Lodz, Wansee strandbad.

Just back from France. After observing the behaviours in France (Masks, distancing, alcohol gel etc), including modifying our own (apartment instead of camping, click and collect instead of shopping at supermarket), I am truly shocked by the recklessly complacent attitudes I witnessed England. Masks seem massively lacking, distancing is non existent. Insanity. We reap what we sow...

Came back yesterday, Forms filled in but not asked for either way.

Squeaky bum time as France records two month high in cases...

In some places "the more you test the more you find" holds up and the death rate corresponds to the number of cases being reported three weeks to a month before. Germany and Spain likewise have rising levels of new cases. You can see it as a negative story or a success for test and trace in the respective countries.

A bit of perspective then: the level of new cases now is about double what the death rate was a few months back. 1500 from a population of 66 000 000 isn't a lot. To get back to over 500 deaths a day as we were in early confinement we'd need new cases in six figures.

Do a bit a of your own checking on countries and compare current death rate with new cases being declares say three weeks back. It's clear that some places are doing better at tracking down newly infected people than others.

There's a story there somewhere, perhaps one the BBC don't want to print because the government doesn't like to be compared. The use of the term "squeaky bum" suggests you've been taken in by the Beeb's sensationalism.

The use of the term “squeaky bum” suggests you’ve been taken in by the Beeb’s sensationalism.

Nope, it's because I'm supposed to be travelling tomorrow and if Bojo the clown sees it and imposes quarantine restrictions based on the news story, I'm berjiggered!

Nah, it'll be if Barnier rattles his cage with another report, someone mentions Gibralta or Trumps tells him.

Just joining the party as we're due to head out on Sunday. Booked in December...

Just sitting in the car on the Chunnel now. No one even asked about the ridiculously long form we filled in.

Belgium is now on the list....or off the list...you'll have to quarantine after Friday night

I am truly shocked by the recklessly complacent attitudes I witnessed England. Masks seem massively lacking, distancing is non existen

My dad came north last weekend from arnac pompadour.

Said there was a marked change in social responsibility on show when he crossed the ditch.

Basically in England you'd think it was life as normal certainly at the services. Where as France was pretty robustly enforced at services

Said he was essentially the only one wearing a mask.

Looking at the blurb on the "Transit stop" issue, does travelling by car using Europtunnel cover this. I.e. in the event of France being added to the non-exempt list, if travelling back from Italy driving, would you get stung? We have options (extended family) for Hols, and damily is very keen to get away so looking at what will cause us less issues on return..

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors?utm_source=0f9aa21f-0a18-4c8f-922a-54e0c0e126f9&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate#transit-stops

Looks like it's going to happen, whether it's for covid or migrant reasons will come out in the was

Priti vacant-cuboid-odious-git Patel has been making more daft statements.

Watch this space

certainly looks like the trip to Switzerland is on, those transit rules suggest no issues, even if there is a lock down. That is assuming that Switzerland doesn't close the borders.

That's interesting that bit about private vehicles wasn't there earlier...

What's PP been saying now?

Looking dodgy: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/10/france-on-the-cliff-edge-of-removal-from-uk-safe-travel-list

It looks like UK is to impose isolation on return from France at the end of this week, we had planned a voluntary isolation anyway. That from the hints on many news sites.

What I can't find is the possibility of a French lockdown or restrictions. I'm looking at a few French news sites and French government pages. Understandably they aren't making clear announcement ahead of changes.

We're trying to decide if eldest_oab should return early. We don't want him caught in Morzine with no travel allowed to get him to Geneva airport.

Any one got links to more insight?

We’re trying to decide if eldest_oab should return early. We don’t want him caught in Morzine with no travel allowed to get him to Geneva airport.

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong (it’s STW!!) but I think last time around people were allowed to travel to leave the country- I think there was a box to tick on the appropriate form to say you were returning to your home country.

Priti vacant

Watch this space

The one between her ears?