Holiday in Brittany anyone?

Carillon, your post at 20, 12 describes Brittany as a rural community. It is, in fact, a region. I live not too far from London and I certainly do not have a cavalier attitude to the pandemic, quite the opposite. One should not generalise.

maddyone the good thing about going to Brittany is that you won't be sitting on a plane with lots of other people. If you're travelling with Brittany Ferries you will be in your own car until on the boat and then you have to remain in your cabin throughout the crossing. They call people at intervals to go back to their cars, so very little contact with other passengers.
Brittany itself is spacious and the beaches, especially on the south coast are expansive. Plenty of space for everyone.

I agree that chances of a break are evaporating. We were booked to go to France with Brittany ferries but they cancelled our sailings. I would risk booking a break in September but I'm put off by the insurance both the cost of it and the terms surrounding CV19. I live on the coast in Scotland and really feel for the businesses and the visitors. Many locals don't want any holidaymakers and the businesses are crying out for tourists. What a sad situation for everyone.

Not just Britanny. pay de la Loire and Moyenne also increasing in their R rates. A friend of mine went to France on Britanny ferries recently and said it was well organised and she felt safe. I would love to go as have a voucher from a cancelled holiday at Easter but husband is very cautious.

whew! I am so glad that I have no desire to go on holiday

Praying everyone, where ever they are, what ever they do, keep safe.

My travel agent says that my easyjet flights will fly to Greece at the end of the month. If they do I will go. As my holiday there on an Island is cancelled I have rebooked with an english land lady in a villa near Athens airport. I have advised her that if the plane does not fly I will not be in Greece. So its a proposal only. Difficult times.

I am now collecting, sanitiser, masks, soap etc.

Oh dear we are going soon to Normandy in a cottage near Mont St Michel ?

Have any of you who are planning European holidays thought about the fact that you may be asked to quarantine for 14 days on arrival from UK?

Not sure I like the harsh tones this morning, everyone is allowed an opinion surely, without bickering.Back down ladies life is too short.

We have after much soul searching decided to stay put this year. We live on an island which is currently 55 days free of the virus. We have now partially opened our borders, but going to see family, which we long to do, would mean 14 days quarantine on return and the prospect of bringing covid over here and putting our one hospital ar risk.

We love to travel, but will have days out and enjoy our little island and hope to goodness we can see our family next year.

Travel for just a holiday seems an unnecessary risk. It's not so much the destination which maybe low risk, but getting there would involve risk.

I think it’s especially difficult time at the moment. We have the message that things are getting back to normal when they’re anything but. We aren’t going on holiday as ours was cut short before lockdown and the days we were away were stressful. We have no plans to repeat it! There’s a saying, wherever you go, there you are..and sadly wherever you go, covid follows you to some degree. I don’t believe anyone is having a truly carefree holiday at the moment and given it seems almost impossible, I’d question whether it’s really worth it.

No, I wouldn't be going to Brittany. The weather is no different to the south of England so would probably just holiday on the south coast.

I really don't like the element of blame that seems to be prevalent with this virus. If someone visits your area for any reason and YOU catch the virus, then it's you who has been out mingling and taking risks. You can't expect freedoms for yourselves that you would deny to others and you can't expect people to stay at home just because you live in a beautiful area and want to keep it all to yourself. All we can do is protect ourselves as well as we can and treat others as we would wish to be treated.
I'm in Cornwall at the moment and - thank goodness - there's been no sign of the horrible 'them and us' attitude that I was dreading. This really is about all of us: let's try and be generous with our beautiful spaces and a bit less greedily territorial.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SusieB50 our R level is currently 0.7 in Normany.
(The temperature is 28° at the moment and we have non-stop sunshine here).
Masks are now obligatory in all enclosed spaces. We went up to the beach yesterday and everyone was carefully keeping their distance.
The various Agence Regional Santé sites have up to date information on the current situation.
This is our current situation.
www.normandie.ars.sante.fr/system/files/2020-07/20200717_CP%20de%20situation_COVID-19.pdf
This information exists for every region including Brittany. Ours is published twice a week.
Hope this helps.

In answer to the original question, no!

Paperbackwriter good post in my opinion

I wouldn’t go anywhere, home or abroad, at the moment. How do you know that the property has been deep-cleaned since it was last rented?

Not sure what question you wanted answering NotSpaghetti?
I don't think you can read too much into the R number when overall cases are very low in the first place.
We will not be visiting the UK in a hurry because we are trying to manage the situation as best we can and that is easiest for us at home in France. Travelling anywhere inevitably adds an element of risk. Our family from the UK will come to us because we have a small cottage in our garden where they can stay.
We feel very safe here in France, the government and local authorities are well organised and the health service is excellent and currently has plenty of capacity.
I think the question is whether as older people, travel is worth the additional risk.

I wonder why anyone who isn't forced to travel would want to do so.

We are staying put at home until a vaccine is available, both in the interest of our remaining healthy and in the interest of all those who would otherwise be in contact with us.

I would dearly love to visit my sister in Normandy but Brittany Ferries are refusing to take foot passengers! I realise they make more money from car passengers but I find this discrimination divisive between those who can and those who either cannot afford a car or who choose not to use one for whatever reason. They have made me feel like a second class citizen. Is it even legal? I’m sure it is but I feel very aggrieved.

Fingers crossed, I'd rather remain as well as I have been during these months, than worry about going anywhere and risk undoing everything. It's not worth it at all.

As I've said before---I want to see my 80th birthday even though there won't be celebrations for that either, it'll just be another day in my life in which I'll feel more than happy to remain feeling as well as I do at the moment.

I didn't know that Evangeline but suspect it is about keeping people safe. Foot passengers would need to be together on the bus and would be more difficult to keep separate. Have they got the same rule on Newhaven to Dieppe? I have done that as a foot passenger using the train to Caen.

Yes, Evangeline, BF can only take a restricted number of passengers so naturally they will take the ones in cars who are paying the most. It is harsh that people like you will lose out. I guess their reasoning is, like any business, they don't want to go bust and are doing it this way in order to stay afloat (!!) for years to come.
Have you thought of going by Condor as s foot passenger? It goes into St. Malo and there are trains from there. It's a good service with a change in Jersey.
Otherwise Eurostar via Lille?

Well thank you for all your responses Gransnetters. At the moment we are watching and waiting. We are aware that by travelling to France we could use our own car, the safety provisions put in place by Brittany Ferries are reassuring, a cottage in the countryside would be relatively isolated, and we wouldn’t need to fly to get there, nor would we need to travel very far on either side of the Channel, as we live near the south coast. I particularly don’t want to necessitate staying overnight in a variety of B+Bs. Our daughter has taken a house in France near the Pyrenees, which again is quite isolated, and has invited us to join them, but as I said, I don’t want to stay overnight on the way down. We’ve tried to consider how we can take miminal risk for both ourselves and anywhere we might visit.

I’m aware that there is a risk in any travel, but there is also a risk when I go shopping or to the hairdresser, and I’ve done both in the last three or four weeks, after a prolonged total lockdown, with not even a visit to the shops for many weeks. We are both in our sixties, and are in reasonable health, although I have asthma. We will wait and watch, but if we do decide to travel, I suspect we may go to Normandy rather than Brittany.

I might add, I suffer from depression, normally well controlled with my medication, but I’ve found lockdown very difficult for this reason. The total absence of my usual life made me feel very down, and I struggled at times. Regularly seeing my friends and family, and planning holidays and travel was motivating for me, and the total lack of those usual activities had quite a profound effect. I’m beginning to recover my equilibrium now, and planning a short break was part of that.