Travel to France advise please ….

Well said Davida my thoughts exactly!

My son has a residency permit and a property to look after, and he can't go.

Won't travel insurance be an issue if going to an "amber" destination? (It might be invalidated?) That alone would put me off, never mind all the other significant issues!

Yes exactly - with time to get to the beach as well! Lots of pompiers involved as well as nurses here.

One item on the news made me laugh - they are offering second vaccine centres in holiday resorts so people don't miss out. So French!
If they can find any vaccinators prepared to work during August Mamie, as that is usually put your feet up month in France!
Mind you a month's work jabbing people on the Côte d'Azur sounds appealing and worth it if you are a nurse from Paris or Lille!

Yes I agree Ellianne.
It is very clear from the data that the infection rates are highest in the 10-19 and 20-29 groups now. The schools break up in a couple of weeks so I guess that they will be hoping that the children have dispersed if/when the Delta variant starts to grow here.
One item on the news made me laugh - they are offering second vaccine centres in holiday resorts so people don't miss out. So French!
Pfizer is about 80% of vaccinations here now and normally done 4 weeks after first, so hopefully that will help too.

My 14 year old DGD is keen to have the vaccine whenever it becomes available.

My 14 year old DGD is keen to have the vaccine whenever it becomes available.

It has been very interesting seeing the different approach in the three countries.
Yes Mamie, and no one way might be viewed as right or wrong, just different for each country.

Lots of pictures of the over 12s getting vaccinations today here in France. They have to have parental consent and be accompanied. Apparently take-up of appointments is very high. I am pleased my eldest granddaughter in the UK will be eligible soon; no news of the grandchildren in Spain yet. It has been very interesting seeing the different approach in the three countries.

It’s just been announced that all 18s and over in England will be able to book their Covid vaccinations by the end of this week. They already can in Wales and Northern Ireland. Even though there are only 161 “serious” cases in the U.K. now, according to Worldometers (as opposed to 2068 in France, incidentally), my concern is that our young people are still vulnerable to the virus, and to long Covid even if they are unlikely to have serious symptoms when first diagnosed.

It’s great news that they will soon be protected, as we are, and this is another important step on the road to normality. I’m not considering travelling overseas just yet, until all in the U.K. who accept it have had both jabs, but I’m starting to think that we may be good to go later this year after all.

mokryna I think we all see risk in different ways. We live in a low COVID area in England, have very little contact with other people, have both been vaccinated. Our house is in the country in a low COVID area of France and our one neighbours house, is currently unoccupied.. The risk attached to that is very different to what it would be if we lived in London and had a second home in Paris.

Risk assessment is rarely a one size fits all situation, although there are times when that is necessary. Most risks can also never be completely eliminated. COVID is not going to go away, it is a new disease and it is an endemic disease. We will have annual COVID jabs, just as we have flu jabs and some years there will be few cases, other times more. Some deaths, but probably not many. So we just need to learn to live iwth it anad gradually resume normal life

I thought that visiting second homes from U.K. was still not allowed in France.

Please don’t not leave the uk and come to France.
I would love to travel to see my hard working NHS daughter who have haven’t seen since January 2020. I usually visit 3/4 times a year. At the moment my area is very low but it could flare up at any moment as it did at Christmas when we had à varient come in from the north following the motorway down to Paris.
Now I am going to hide behind the sofa.

MamieI really feel for anyone missing family events because of the curfew. We are just missing some premises, missing family and family events is on an entirely different scale.
Well said, M0nica.

Ellianne yes, there are so many things we are missing, not just the obvious ones like wine and cheese. French supermarkets have a much better range of environmentally friendly household cleaning materials than you can get in the UK - and cheaper. I am now paying over the odds for Ecover, or using the more polluting standard supermarket brands.

We are lucky that we have a lovely Australian lady who cuts our grass and in the past year she has branched out into caretaker services and visits and checks the house and deals with mail. But in our absence our closest neighbour has died and his wife is now in a care home with dementia.

Mamie I really feel for anyone missing family events becaus of the curfew. We are just missing some premises, missing family and family events is on an entirely different scale.

Our English neighbours are coming over to their holiday home this weekend and intend to stay for threeweeks. I think all the hassle with testing etc would deter me as well but I can understand they want to check on their property.

What a great idea to get a taste of France while stuck here Monica!
We are missing all the summer goodies we usually have stocked in our food cupboard here after our trips to France.
Our apartment fortunately has no grass to cut. Part of the frustration on both sides of the channel is that France is so close and accessible, but yet so far now sadly. Who would have thought this could happen?

Sounds delicious MOnica! ?you will get here soon.
I am desperate to get to England for a special family event in early July, but can see that I won't be able to go. ?

Mamie, it is not that we are afraid to go, but as things stand at the moment we would have to do so many tests to see if we had COVID plus 10 days quarantine when we return that all the joy would be drained from the return because we would spend half our time taking tests, posting them, remembering when the next one was etc.

From the risk point of view we would travel there tomorrow, without any worries about catching the disease.

We have just found a fairly local French Restaurant, that have Soiree Normandie once a week and we have booked for this one evening this week, moule frites, a Trou Normande and Mousse au chocolat, to just for an hour or so imagine we are indeed in Normandy.

MOnica both Manche and Calvados have low numbers of infections now. 44 per 100,000 in Manche and 38 per 100,000 in Calvados. For 70-79 year olds the numbers are 12 and 8. Hospital figures are very low. Vaccinations have been cracking on at a furious pace and they are doing age 12+ now. Strangely the UK press doesn't seem to report the good news. ?
covidtracker.fr/

Advice on government site is still not to travel unless vital. We were due to go next week but cancelled. My brother in law also has a house in France and normally visits regularly but even they aren’t going. We are entering the 3rd wave so it will all probably shut down again anyway.

Jaxjacky

Oops entry to France requirements attached, return to UK as said above, négative PCR test up to 72 hours before travel, completed passenger location form, tests for days 2&8 booked through an approved site only and 10 days isolation. Is it really worth it at all?

There are so many reports of day 2 and 8 not coming back quickly- and many people have had to isolate for 14 days, because tests have not come back. If you don't have test back, 14 days is the earliest release.

I just would not do it. We are desperate to get to France we have a home in Normandy that we haven't visited for a year, but while the rules are as they are and the risks are as they are. we aregritting our teeth and staying in the UK.

Oops entry to France requirements attached, return to UK as said above, négative PCR test up to 72 hours before travel, completed passenger location form, tests for days 2&8 booked through an approved site only and 10 days isolation. Is it really worth it at all?