Anyone else now going to France?

[Ridingthecrestofawave]

Just wanting a quick poll on what people's thoughts are about going to France with current lockdown relaxations? - Euro tunnel, caravan 2 x hotel stop offs en route with 2 DC's .....All facilities on sites open apparently but gel, masks etc needed. Wondering will it be empty? Hard work and weird to follow rules? What would you do? x

@Greenbeanie88 i haven’t looked extensively or price checked yet but battleface insures for £250 for 17 nights for 5 of us to France. I’m Not normally Someone who throws money at things but we’ll do this if the fco removes France from the list.

chocolat I was trying to figure out the stats, and as far as I can see France is now registering over 2,000 new infections per day, UK registering half that number or less.

@Friendsoftheearth yes but that’s mon-fri. UK were over 1000 today and that’s every day. I did a quick calculation earlier and France last week averaged approx1200 per day where as we were 800 approx (I didn’t wrote it down and can’t recall exactly). France is a bit higher but not outrageously so.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/10/travel-latest-malta-poised-quarantine-restrictions-cases-rise/

UK has been between 600-800 every day for weeks only going over 1000 on one day, the rest of the time it has been well under.

France has been averaging 1600-2000 every day, and is now over 2000 cases a day

It is not the actual numbers but the issue of multiplying very very quickly.

[quote Greenbeanie88]@zippyswife - yes potentially. We have insurance in place as we booked last year and we are still covered by that for certain things if the advice changes whilst we're there.
We've made the decision to go anyway as we have planned building work starting and have to be out of our house . We have our EHIC cards and if anything else happens understand we would need to pay for treatment etc. Eldest will miss a bit of school if quarantine comes in but we've decided we're okay with that.

If you know of any companies offering insurance let me know as I'll look into it.
Not seen figures yet - think they may be lower and then higher tomorrow when the weekend is taken into account.

It's the ECDE website which apparently the government is following - it has a map of Europe with cases colour-coded by reigon.[/quote]
If it's any small consolation, the costs you have to pay for medical care are cheaper than private care in the UK. Make sure you use a state hospital if the worst happens, as private hospitals cost more and you will only be reimbursed a percentage of a state hospital costs . A GP visit costs €25, a consultant appt where we are is a bargain €50, and I had a day in hospital, 2 procedures, a general anaesthetic and a raft of lab tests which came to €800. A CT scan with results given to you the same day was a bit over €200. It's bloody good really.

We are in France at the moment. We arrived just over two weeks ago on the Tunnel (decided not to use our Brittany Ferries crossing until next year, same with Zeebruge - Hull on the way home as we don't like what we've heard about conditions on board). We had the first 10 days near Biscarrosse and we are now in the Lot, close to the Dordogne.

We are in our caravan. We stayed at two familiar sites on the way down. I was very, very apprehensive but there is lots of hand sanitizer available and we were fortunate that the swimming pools at both sites were empty. We didn't use the toilets but have used the showers (only after wiping them down).

At the beach it was too busy in places and we turned back on several days. Everyone crowded into the supervised swimming areas. So we found quieter places. It was harder work than a normal holiday but manageable with some effort. The pool on the first site was way too busy and no distancing so we kept the children away. One night they actually had a pool party for the teenagers which I found staggering.

Here in the Lot it's been easier to keep away from people by not using the pool at the campsite (where things are incredibly slack) and heading for the Dordogne river instead. But it's been tough in 40+ degree heat and felt like a bit of an endurance test at times.

Masks are being worn by everyone in supermarkets and by 90% at tourist sites like caves. In tourist towns like Sarlat it's patchy and we've felt very uncomfortable at times. Waiting staff are wearing them but not necessarily over their noses. We've gradually got more comfortable with eating out but have chosen very very carefully and only sat outside at a distance.

I'm pleased we came but it's been a long way from a 'normal' holiday. It's much much busier than I thought (although noticeable absence of Brits) and fairly stressful.

However I am very very cautious and have been since March. I've wipes and sanitiser with me all the time and I wipe down tables and chairs before we sit on them. Our children are 9 and 7 and have worn masks all the time that we have.

Just read this.... published 20 mins ago.

"The Government is expected to strike France from the “green list” of quarantine-free countries later this week, after the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) meets tomorrow to analyse the latest data on coronavirus cases across the world"

I'm in France now , due back Saturday. Upset about the quarantine likelihood not always knew it was a possibility. When I booked France were doing well and seemed like they were dealing well with this virus. It just shows how quickly things can change and after this I won't be booking to go anywhere abroad again for a long time.

@Greenbeanie88 Can you possibly give us the link?

I’ve been following this thread for a week or so. We booked a trip to a campsite in France a month or so ago. Leaving England on Saturday just gone and taking the tunnel. On Friday we decided too much stress / not worth it so we contacted the campsite to move the booking back to next year. They said not possible.... so we came. We arrived yesterday (Vendee). Wow what a crying shame it will be if we have to go home ! Weather gorgeous and we feel much safer than at home. We are not mixing with anyone and everyone wears masks / sanitizer everywhere. Campsite empty (whole other thread about how f**d the economy must be in France and England). We are monitoring the news and gutted at the prospect of having to come home.

I'm not a telegraph reader but it just came up whilst I was searchin

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-uk-deaths-cases-second-lockdown/

I understand it is really difficult for a lot of you planning holidays in France. I just wanted to add a plea from a gite owner in France - please cancel as soon as possible if you are worried about quarantine. That way we can re-advertise and hopefully recuperate some of the lost income. It hasn't been an easy year but thankfully French, Dutch, Belgian and German bookings have come good and replaced the postponed or cancelled UK bookings to a large extent. And as other countries can still travel we can potentially deal with the loss of further UK bookings in August as long as we know as soon as possible.

[quote zippyswife]@Greenbeanie88 i haven’t looked extensively or price checked yet but battleface insures for £250 for 17 nights for 5 of us to France. I’m Not normally Someone who throws money at things but we’ll do this if the fco removes France from the list.[/quote]
Really interested in this, didn't know there was such a thing! Will you wait until a FCO decision is made to book the insurance?

Yes I’m due to leave Thursday. Finding this was a game changer for us as I think was really stressing/obsessively checking. But when I saw we could get round it by getting this insurance I decided to relax and do that.

Just received news about France on my phone, it is going to definitely be put on the quarantine list now the weekend figures are out. The government were keen to keep France open, but senior ministers have now been told that the numbers are just too high, announcement due in the next day or two.

We can not be surprised they have been warning people for weeks that this may happen.

Just seen the Switzerland, Netherlands and Malta also going on quarantine list. Portugal is going to be removed - but at the end of August. So not helpful if you want a summer holiday.

We called it and cancelled last night. The cases in France are rising rapidly, far more so than the UK and we didn't want to take any risks. It was less agonising for us as we'd booked a fully refundable break so best wishes to everyone still hoping/deciding.

@Friendsoftheearth where is that info from? Do you have a link? And yes we knew it was coming. Still is annoying to say the least! Time to buy that extra insurance.

@Friendsoftheearth does it say when it will go on the quarantine list and when it will be removed from the fco list?

It has flashed up my apple news, so I can't link it as I can't see it on the main news feed on the internet at the moment. It said that senior ministers were now preparing to add France to the list, along with Holland, Malta and Switzerland. The announcement will be in the next few days and will be enforced towards the end of the week.

I could only find this:

metro.co.uk/2020/08/10/fears-growing-france-next-uk-quarantine-list-spike-coronavirus-infections-13109564/

A quick note from us to say we are here and having a wonderful time. I actually forgot about cv until midday yesterday as we feel so removed from it. Campsite is very quiet - sad for them.
The risk is very low in quiet rural spots.

We are due to move to another site on Saturday so will have to have a think then what to do I guess.

The cases in France are rising rapidly, far more so than the UK

That's the headline for sure, how is testing in the UK going?

The testing capacity in the UK is now excellent and has been for a long time. It took a while to get going, but that is the case for most countries with the exception of Asia - they had the benefit of a dummy run with SARS.