France in August?

[B J G]

Entry restrictions to France has been continued from 31st May,
ie Only EU or French Nationals plus certain essential reasons will permit entry from the UK.

 

[Mickyb123]

Travel to France certainly on Eurostar (can’t comment on ferry or tunnel at MO) with correct documents is pretty seamless. And that was on 15 May so before lifting of U.K. travel restrictions relaxed. Train arrived at destination well after curfew time. French police were fine as long as you had correct attestation paperwork to get back to your property, obviously it would be different if travelling by road.
French people are as friendly and welcoming as ever. Shops and hospitality venues have just opened. The French have little concept of social distancing, but mask wearing in shops is enforced pretty strictly.
Driving a vehicle all be it a classic with English number plates has been fine so far.
green card the only real thing to worry about.

So no issue at borders, just had to have justification to travel.
No strip search looking for hidden ham sandwiches at the border.
Life in France is normal, well as normal as it can be with covid.
PCR test for travel back are free.

Latest French restrictions on travel from the U.K. just the French Govt trying to react to changing situation with R rates, it’s no real difference to what the U.K. govt has done with restricting folk from some areas entering. As it has been since C 19 became known things are flexible and likely to change, bit like here June 21 was a target date, chances of thatdate changing has always been an option.

 

[Phil P]

Is anyone getting concerned about any summer trips to France? France is about to enter another major lockdown. Are they really going to allow visitors? My other more subtle concern is the constant ramping up of the vaccine arguments. We’ve got all the Astra Zeneca, and we’re so far ahead I wonder if that will cause resentment. At the current rate France will have vaccinated all adults by March 2023 apparently. I’m also told the British are currently particularly disliked not because of our success with vaccines but because “the Kent strain” is seen as the cause of the recent problems.
We are booked to go at the start of August for two weeks. I don’t fancy going anywhere if we are actively disliked.

We got 2 fabulous weeks in France in August in 2020. We had been home schooling our two young kids and it was an amazing escape and reset for the rest of the year.

We have tunnel bookings but also a ferry single to Santander, deferred from last year. I’m tempted to spend 10 days in Spain and then dash back through France.

We’ve just had to a trip as 5 of the countries we were going to are amber, France included! Would have ended up like the film the Great Escape getting chased through Europe!
Have rescheduled for late August but we live in hope rather than belief. This covid isn’t going away? So instead of the Adriatic we’re now wanting to try out coast of Cornwall or Devon, any suggestions for a couple of nights. Preferably no kids (we’ve done that, now a bit of chill time for us) thanks

 

[Phil P]

I really don't get why anyone would go abroad any time soon. The pandemic is still here and new hotspots popping up all over the Continent. Much safer for everyone to saty in the UK.

Agreed. it’s just our unpredictable weather, depressing sitting in a soggy field but can’t risk wife or self getting sick for a bit of sun arghhh

 

[Wildcamper]

We’ve just had to a trip as 5 of the countries we were going to are amber, France included! Would have ended up like the film the Great Escape getting chased through Europe!
Have rescheduled for late August but we live in hope rather than belief. This covid isn’t going away? So instead of the Adriatic we’re now wanting to try out coast of Cornwall or Devon, any suggestions for a couple of nights. Preferably no kids (we’ve done that, now a bit of chill time for us) thanks

Devon and Cornwall in August, or at any time during the school holidays will be a nightmare!! This year with European holidays largely off the agenda it will likely be worse than even. If no kids stay at home over the holidays and enjoy much greater freedom before or after. We never even think about going away during school hols.

 

[jimmywease]

I really don't get why anyone would go abroad any time soon. The pandemic is still here and new hotspots popping up all over the Continent. Much safer for everyone to saty in the UK.

I’ll have a go at explaining the thinking of such people:

It’s not my job to control the pandemic. It’s my duty to follow the advice of those whose job it is to control the pandemic.
The pandemic is indeed still here and could be for a while. My children have already made huge sacrifices over a time period that feels to them like years. They were made to do this, to protect the older generations. The same older generations who selfishly torched the planet, as the children are now learning.
If I just cancel away my postponed holidays and lose the money, in favour of UK holidays for as long as covid is around, I’ll be denying my children all of the things that drive us to the continent for vacation: better climate; different food; languages; culture; pace of life etc etc. It’s a cliche but these really are precious years. This is the last year that my daughter will wear a swimsuit without feeling self-conscious. This is the last year that my son will try to order food & groceries in French without feeling foolish.

I understand that we slightly increase the risk of worsening the pandemic (although we’ve all had covid and the adults had the vaccine) but a balance has to be made and I leave that to the experts.

All that said, it’s Brighton for us this week and we live in hope for the EU in August!

 

[Wongo]

Do keep upto date. The UK does more genetic sequencing of + viral samples in a week than the EU has done this year. In fact the UK labs do sequencing for other countries as well. In fact the only countries free of the Indian variant are probably Australia, New Zealand and possibly N Korea.
What matters is the Vaccine. Virtually All hospital admissions are either not vaccinated or within a short time of receiving the 1st dose.

Can you never admit Johnson has made serious errors regards late lockdowns and border controls? opening schools early last tear and recently allowing flights from India whilst Bangladesh & Pakistan were on the Red list was politics causing excess death. Obsessive EU ‘whataboutery’ is farcical. A significant portion of admissions are people with both doses of vaccine but we do not know which one. Anyhow got to go someone unknown has paid my builder!

 

[WelshGas]

Can you never admit Johnson has made serious errors regards late lockdowns and border controls? opening schools early last tear and recently allowing flights from India whilst Bangladesh & Pakistan were on the Red list was politics causing excess death. Obsessive EU ‘whataboutery’ is farcical. A significant portion of admissions are people with both doses of vaccine but we do not know which one. Anyhow got to go someone unknown has paid my builder!

I'm afraid not, until the Full Public Enquiry has published all the facts and conclusions. Hind sight, as you practise, is wonderful at distorting the facts at the time the decisions were made.
Just because he didn't do what you wanted him to do doesn't make his decisions wrong. Unfortunately he, the government and the scientific and medical community are make decisions for the whole not just " Wongo of South London "

 

[Wongo]

I'm afraid not, until the Full Public Enquiry has published all the facts and conclusions. Hind sight, as you practise, is wonderful at distorting the facts at the time the decisions were made.
Just because he didn't do what you wanted him to do doesn't make his decisions wrong. Unfortunately he, the government and the scientific and medical community are make decisions for the whole not just " Wongo of South London "

The body count indicates otherwise. Bye.

 

[WelshGas]

The body count indicates otherwise. Bye.

Obviously no scientific background.

 

[bob_summers]

I’ll have a go at explaining the thinking of such people:

It’s not my job to control the pandemic. It’s my duty to follow the advice of those whose job it is to control the pandemic.
The pandemic is indeed still here and could be for a while. My children have already made huge sacrifices over a time period that feels to them like years. They were made to do this, to protect the older generations. The same older generations who selfishly torched the planet, as the children are now learning.
If I just cancel away my postponed holidays and lose the money, in favour of UK holidays for as long as covid is around, I’ll be denying my children all of the things that drive us to the continent for vacation: better climate; different food; languages; culture; pace of life etc etc. It’s a cliche but these really are precious years. This is the last year that my daughter will wear a swimsuit without feeling self-conscious. This is the last year that my son will try to order food & groceries in French without feeling foolish.

I understand that we slightly increase the risk of worsening the pandemic (although we’ve all had covid and the adults had the vaccine) but a balance has to be made and I leave that to the experts.

All that said, it’s Brighton for us this week and we live in hope for the EU in August!

Good summary, I'd add that a foreign holiday for millions of working-class Brits is more than the sum of its parts. We may have grown up perfectly content with a week at Skeggy in August, but times change and the guarantee of good weather is something that makes people's daily challenges easier to face.

 

[Swiss Cheese]

Good summary, I'd add that a foreign holiday for millions of working-class Brits is more than the sum of its parts. We may have grown up perfectly content with a week at Skeggy in August, but times change and the guarantee of good weather is something that makes people's daily challenges easier to face.

Well my trip was not holiday related, but becomes impossible due to the restrictions imposed, which is likely the actual design of these restrictions - to make travel 'logistically impossible' or 'financially crippling'. Therefore they have succeeded in my case on the first count.

I will now have to spend even more money organising a removal company and then having the stuff shipped by land. The only real way to avoid this would be to not sell the property, and that would deny the UK IRS several £10,000's (Stamp Duty and Capital Gains, as well as VAT on the services like estate agent and solicitor!), also it would upset the buyer and cause me more grief as we cannot realistically visit the place to simply keep an eye on it.

I am not looking for sympathy of course, but here is yet another example of the impact of the sudden decisions being made. Others have far worse scenarios (death of relatives, children in other countries, etc.) so this is minor by comparison, but still a real p.i.a. !

 

[Mickyb123]

Welsh gas, we agree. The Boris bashing is just pointless. Even the later investigation is not really going to achieve much, maybe slightly better prepared for the future. Sadly any post incident investigation mainly due to the press is focused on blame culture rather than learning lessons for the future.

No one! Had the perfect solution to this pandemic, some countries were able to do a more effective lockdown AKA Australia, but they are a nation that are already isolated from the rest of the world and had the ability to totally close up shop, very few other places in the world could do that.

The focus of any inquiry, should be, what can we do better in similar circumstances next time! Not they should have done this, they should have done that.

 

[Mickyb123]

Wongo, at least you did say one thing sensible. You suggested Boris made “errors” eg unintended. Everyone makes errors, it’s identifying the links in the chain that resulted in that error.

 

[Wongo]

Wongo, at least you did say one thing sensible. You suggested Boris made “errors” eg unintended. Everyone makes errors, it’s identifying the links in the chain that resulted in that error.

 

[Wongo]

But it us about responsibility, if you make grave errors then tell lies in parliament or on record (‘we are testing everyone before discharging to care homes’ Hancock. ‘Schools are safe’ ‘eat out to help out’ Indian border ban etc these are errors of judgment and known falsehoods without excuse or able to use ‘we never knew’ as an alibi, thus causing many many unnecessary deaths. To remain in office is a gross insult to the bereaved. Have we completely lost our moral compass?
I well remember Peter Carrington over the Falklands.

 

[B J G]

Well my trip was not holiday related, but becomes impossible due to the restrictions imposed, which is likely the actual design of these restrictions - to make travel 'logistically impossible' or 'financially crippling'. Therefore they have succeeded in my case on the first count.

I will now have to spend even more money organising a removal company and then having the stuff shipped by land. The only real way to avoid this would be to not sell the property, and that would deny the UK IRS several £10,000's (Stamp Duty and Capital Gains, as well as VAT on the services like estate agent and solicitor!), also it would upset the buyer and cause me more grief as we cannot realistically visit the place to simply keep an eye on it.

I am not looking for sympathy of course, but here is yet another example of the impact of the sudden decisions being made. Others have far worse scenarios (death of relatives, children in other countries, etc.) so this is minor by comparison, but still a real p.i.a. !

Agree with your view that there is a 'back door' political approach to stopping any cross border travel by imposing testing at high cost as a mandatory requirement with no regard for any immunisation completed.

The threat of mutations of the virus looking likely to extend restrictions making any travel plans extremely difficult and probably pointless currently.

Looks like you will have to jump though any gap in the restrictions very rapidly before the door slams again. Good luck.

 

[Ozzy Pete]

France and Spain 2020 XXXX France and Spain 2021 XXXX.
France and Spain 2022 ????.

 

[WelshGas]

But it us about responsibility, if you make grave errors then tell lies in parliament or on record (‘we are testing everyone before discharging to care homes’ Hancock. ‘Schools are safe’ ‘eat out to help out’ Indian border ban etc these are errors of judgment and known falsehoods without excuse or able to use ‘we never knew’ as an alibi, thus causing many many unnecessary deaths. To remain in office is a gross insult to the bereaved. Have we completely lost our moral compass?
I well remember Peter Carrington over the Falklands.

You presume with hindsight.
Care homes were supposed to have robust Infection Control procedures, quarentining new residents for 14 days, dedicated staff, but they didn't. They had agency staff that worked in multiple homes and the list goes on. Testing patients prior to discharge is a factor but the test is only good for that point in time. They could be incubating. The 14 day quarentine with dedicated staff is equally important. Care Homes are out to make money and profits. Many corners cut to achieve that and the majority are private companies.
Boris is the spoke person for the cabinet who make decisions based on Advice from multiple sources. If he is wrong so are the cabinet and the advisors who supported his utterance. There was very little/few dissenting voices before any major decisions, only in hindsight, which says a lot.

 

[Mickyb123]

Strewth we are agreeing again WG
Wongo, no doubt different decisions may have resulted in different outcome. We will never know.
The whole point is, it’s about learning lessons for the future.
The Govt, made decisions on advice from numerous different sources. Some of that advice has in hindsight been proved to be wrong. But that’s in hindsight.
The question to ask is would any other govt have done it any different or any better? IMO unlikely.
The govt may have made errors along the way? Quite possibly, did they do what they thought was best at the time with the available information and advice they had? IMO yes.
Human nature though is to target someone to blame. So if that makes you happy fine.
For me all I want to see is that lessons learnt are remembered in any future event.

 

[clarinetbcn]

Spain went into a very rigid lockdown over a week before the UK began to take measures, because the Spanish government realized that based on the available scientific information it was already seriously late. There was a mistaken attitude that “It can’t happen here.” I remember those crucial days between the hard Spanish lockdown and the UK beginning to implement the first restrictions, reading many posts on here from UK members saying, “It won’t happen here.” I think it’s important to realize that the world is a smaller place than it used to be, and be more willing to realize that what happens in foreign places can affect us.

 

[GrannyJen]

I am not a Boris fan. I am not a brexiteer. I am not a tory.

I am someone who recognises that the world, not just this country, has been blind-sided and devastated by a totally unforeseen circumstance of catastrophic proportions,

I do look back and see responses based on a whole set of wrong assumptions to be unfit for the challenges faced. Only a truly Independent inquiry given the authority to demand all the facts and briefing papers could finally be in a position to evaluate how well or how bad the while spectrum of informed resources, from ministerial to academic advisory, fared.

I do have concerns over certain aspects of statements given by ministers more for political expedience than for pandemic control,.

I do think we should be in a position of a new normality going forward where the epidemic is contained before throwing bricks. Churchill dropped enough bricks to build a whole post-war new town but he got us through the crisis. That is the first concern. Get back to a new normality, then start counting the bricks, not before.

 

[Ozzy Pete]

It now appears from tomorrow you can’t travel to France even if you wanted to .France has put a ban on UK citizens because of the Indian variant. Just Enjoy the UK for this year.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

It now appears from tomorrow you can’t travel to France even if you wanted to .France has put a ban on UK citizens because of the Indian variant. Just Enjoy the UK for this year.

Agree @Ozzy Pete, UK this year.

Early stages of a 3rd wave here though so policy on UK restrictions quite likely to change, and not in a good way.

I read this morning that Vietnam has identified a dangerous new variant of the Indian variant!

Just shows the spread of Covid variants despite all the restrictions in place.

 

[Wongo]

I am not a Boris fan. I am not a brexiteer. I am not a tory.

I am someone who recognises that the world, not just this country, has been blind-sided and devastated by a totally unforeseen circumstance of catastrophic proportions,

I do look back and see responses based on a whole set of wrong assumptions to be unfit for the challenges faced. Only a truly Independent inquiry given the authority to demand all the facts and briefing papers could finally be in a position to evaluate how well or how bad the while spectrum of informed resources, from ministerial to academic advisory, fared.

I do have concerns over certain aspects of statements given by ministers more for political expedience than for pandemic control,.

I do think we should be in a position of a new normality going forward where the epidemic is contained before throwing bricks. Churchill dropped enough bricks to build a whole post-war new town but he got us through the crisis. That is the first concern. Get back to a new normality, then start counting the bricks, not before.

Churchill headed a government of national unity not political and financial opportunity.