UKH

Is anybody travelling to France soon with kids ?  Mine are 14,12and 9 , I’m trying to get a clear idea of what the covid rules are for those ages and still can’t decide if they need to be double jabbed etc. Ii figure anybody going soon will have more pressing need than me to find out .

In reply to mike123:

Nobody is going at the moment with or without kids. It's shut to travel from the UK. But there's light at the end of the tunnel.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/13/france-to-lift-ban-on-uk-tour... 

We've got some friends with kids hopefully coming out to visit at the end of Feb, but I wouldn't hazard a guess as to what the rules will be then.

They've just change the Covid Health Pass to mean that you need to be fully vaccinated - tests aren't enough. But the latest news was that this will kick in only when cases are above a certain threshold. It's still going through parliament though.

The snow is amazing at the moment though!

In reply to yorkshireman:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59977978

So is it not easing from Friday as the BBC and Guardian articles? Does this sound like misreporting or are you getting a different story over there? 
 

In reply to mike123:

I'm wondering the same.  Full details still to be announced, but as I understand it, likely that although holidays will be allowed from Friday, everyone 12 and over will need to have a PCR test in the 24 hours prior to departure.  I don't fully understand this, do they have to have the test and get results in that 24 hour period, or could the test be 2 days before with results received in the 24 hours ahead of departure.

We're meant to be going in Feb half term and I'm hoping that by then rules will be back to pre-departure tests only being required for over-12s who aren't double vaccinated (our kids are 9 and 11).  Appreciate this may still be a headache for you if your older kids aren't vaccinated yet.

In reply to GraB:

I think the news articles are focussed on getting across - what I was mentioning was that you would then need to comply with the local pass sanitaire restrictions over here which will complicate things. For instance my local ski resort, and its attached town have announced mandatory mask wearing outdoors as an example because of the high number of cases. The daily new cases here are huge.

I think it's best to wait and then check https://uk.ambafrance.org/COVID-19-rules-for-travel-between-France-and-the-... when the announcement has been officially made.

EDIT: As I mentioned cases here are exploding and currently half the schools are on strike because of the Covid rules and the impact this is having. Friends of mine have spent 90 minutes queuing at pharmacies to get tested following detected cases in the classroom as whole schools are getting suspended and tested.

Admittedly in a dedicated ski resort (eg. somewhere that's not really a town where people properly live) this might be different - but whether its better or worse different I couldn't tell you.

In reply to yorkshireman:

Right - yes I understand. Yes, the case numbers in France are concerning.

In reply to mike123: thanks all . I posted this after the much anticipated announcement that from toomorow  we are allowed to go . I’m all boosted up but my kids have only had one dose . I’m hoping that a pcr before travel will be enough  . I’m going to check with my travel insurance that if the rules change ( not in our favour ) we will be covered . As I’ve said in another thread it’s safer booking a package at the moment as crystal / tui seem to be taking it in the chin if the sands shift  but for various reasons I need to drive out in feb ( if we go ) . It’s making my head spin but is , I know , very much a first world problem . 

In reply to mike123:

One positive is that I think (non-NHS) lateral flows are allowed pre-departure to France, they're quite a bit cheaper than PCR

In reply to Sam W:

My worry is that there is no box for "recently had covid" - which could apply to a huge amount of folk from the latest wave.

I'm way outside my isolation period but still testing positive presumably because of some quirk in the tests, the antibodies or my physiology. 

We're off to Denmark in February and you don't have to do any pre-entry tests there if you can prove you've had covid more than 14 days and less than 6 months ago. Sadly France and skiing will have to wait. 

In reply to mike123: bump . Anybody made any sense  of the rules yet 

In reply to Sam W:

It means have the test in that time period (this is the case for all countries with test requirements)

In reply to mike123:

Note also in France if your initial 2 doses of vaccine were 7 months ago (might vary according to the vaccine) you will need to have had the booster dose to have a valid pass. which is also not valid until 7 days after the injection. They are checking the covid passes at the lower lifts in ski resorts, some of the restaurants do, some don"t, all are meant to. We were skiing last weekend at Les 7 Laux and were checked about 4 times.

In reply to RX-78:

We were at Villard-Corrençon (other side of Grenoble to L7L) on Saturday and it was insanely busy - we didn't get checked once. Yet a couple of weeks ago when it was dead they were checking us at the lower lifts.

In reply to mike123:

Distilled quite nicely here.

https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Covid-19-Rules-for-travel-to-an...

In reply to yorkshireman:

Not really been checked on a lift yet, just a

"do you have your pass?"

"yes, its in my bag"

"OK, the gendarmes were checking earlier today"

But I'm asked for my pass almost everytime I have something to eat or drink in a café, bar or restaurant, even the same place on successive days.

In reply to Doug:

Restaurants are a bit intermittent I find.

I ran a race on Sunday in -13º conditions and obviously outside but we still had to scan pass sanitaires, and wear masks at the start, end and at any food stops (a mask pretty quickly becomes completely solid and pretty much useless at -13º).

It was organised by my local run-club and I just found out that one of the volunteers test positive since Sunday and he handed out 54 dossards (though thankfully not mine) so going to grab a test just in case.

In reply to yorkshireman:

One of local ski de fond centres was planning an outdoor event on Friday evening but cancelled at the last minute due to the high N° of Covid cases locally. The other centre (they are some 15 km apart but both in the Champsaur) held an event on Sunday morning with drinks, ski tests, waxing demonstrations, etc & that was apparently OK. So not very consistent!

In reply to mike123: thanks all , we are ( fingers crossed ) looking at the end of feb , it seems to me that the best policy is to book sone pcr tests for us all  for the dates we want to go and then just wait until the week before to really go through the rules carefully . Things can change at very short notice .

In reply to mike123:

It can change by end of Feb and currently you can use Antigen/LFT for France....

Best site for info is

https://reopen.europa.eu/en/