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

If it's announced on Thursday is it always immediate or doesn't it come into force midnight or the day after? I can't remember

@stringbean

We are due to be heading to France early Friday morning (1.30am Eurotunnel). A week or so ago the tunnel was fully booked for that morning 6am-midday slots, but now showing as having availability (albeit hugely inflated prices), suggesting people have either cancelled or re-booked onto earlier crossings in attempt to escape the UK (I don't blame them!).

We are fortunate that we can both work from home in event of quarantine, if this is imposed after we leave. BUT, having spoken to our car insurance this evening (Direct Line) they have informed me that, if the government advice changes before we leave, such that France is added to the list of countries where non-essential travel is not advised, then our car insurance will not be valid! if the guidance changes once we've set a toe in France, we're ok, but not if the rules change beforehand. We were taking a 'sod it, let's go anyway' approach up until then, but would have to cancel if this was the case. Not sure the campsite would be prepared to refund/issue a credit this late in the day either. So fed up with this whole situation.

So does this mean if the guidance changes at midnight on Friday (which my money is on) you’d be ok as you’d already left?

Apparently previous announcements were on a Thursday and i do think they’ll give a day or so’s notice of it changing

@BringBackDoves - We were told our 'green card' would cover us if the announcement was made once we were already in France. But we won't be covered if the announcement is made before we go, as we would effectively be travelling against FCO advice at that point.

@bottlenose301 For Belgium it was announced on Thursday and the quarantine started at 4am on Saturday. It’s such an arbitrary time - Sunday evening would be so much better as it would leave people time to get back, as bookings at campsites or holiday homes often are Saturday-Saturday.

We haven't checked our car insurance but will do that first thing tomorrow You're right @crumpetsandpuzzles - a Thursday/Friday announcement when most people have holidays booked for the Friday/Saturday is a real pain.

This really is shitty. I know this is all a first world problem in the middle of a pandemic but it’s stressful.
I thought with Belgium that the fco advice came in earlier than the 0400 quarantine time. I could be wrong though (and hope I am).

Yes ;)

mobile.twitter.com/fcotravel/status/1291456132825972742

Bad news I’m afraid. Looks like the fco announced restrictions immediately last Thursday evening re Belgium etc. So the fco restrictions came into force before the quarantine began.

@zippyswife

This really is shitty. I know this is all a first world problem in the middle of a pandemic but it’s stressful. I thought with Belgium that the fco advice came in earlier than the 0400 quarantine time. I could be wrong though (and hope I am).

It was 4am on the Sat in England but from midnight Thursday in Wales.

Geez what random times. I'll try and find what Spain was too.

I'm flying back from France on Thursday now , but it's such a shame. I can tell you where I am (south of France) I do feel very safe.

It was a Saturday when they announced Spain. Luxembourg was a Thursday. Who knows. I wish I’d chill out and stop checking all this. I had calmed a bit but hearing about the fco advice invalidating car insurance has thrown me again.

I'm the same @zippyswife - felt calmer having made the decision to go but then I keep checking things and getting stressed out. Partner is a lot calmer than me.
I know once we get there we will be in our rural bubble though & will be relaxing. Also I know I'll see less people there in two weeks than a 10 min trip up the high street here.

@Greenbeanie88 remind me when are you leaving? (Sorry I know I’ve asked before)

Your rural bubble sounds perfect. We’re going to a campsite. We normally go somewhere quiet but I wanted more for the kids this year. I swing between excitement and anxiety. I will be like this until tmr evening as we leave early Thursday. I guess we can’t pack the car till late tmr night as we don’t know whether we are actually going.

I think insurance needs to checked on an individual basis. Presumably some people have car insurance for travelling in Spain for eg at the current time as the ferries are still running.

Coronavirus: Cases surge as France goes 'wrong way' www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53745481

@zippyswife - we leave 8am on Friday - I'd actually prefer to have left and have it announced rather than going against FCO advice. I've had few friends come back from a campsite recently and they found it very well organised and felt the measures in place were good - i guess it depends on the campsite.
I expect it will be quieter but there will still be others about. Maybe not as many Brits.

France have 1397 new cases
UK has 1148

France 34 new hospital cases over the weekend (33 were discharged so surely about even)

And yet the news is all about migrants in the Channel

My car insurance says that they must provide the min legal cover for EU countries due to EU agreements and no green card required unless you are coming back after the transition period (eg 31st Dec?). There is no mention of Foreign Office advice not to travel trumping EU driving insurance laws or invalidating insurance (presumably because we are still in the transition period).
We don't sail until 23rd Aug and I'm pretty confident it won't happen. I can apparently reschedule my P&O booking and I dropped an email on the off chance to the campsite we have a caravan booked at, which has a very strict no refunds policy, and they have said if UK govt doesn't permit travel they will give me a voucher for future booking so worst case scenario is next years holiday is paid for, I just dont have any money to book a plan b to cheer us all up with (my spare holiday funds , ie wine money, have just been spent on the cats vets bills)

@BringBackDoves that’s exactly what I thought when I read it.

@pettyprudence that’s interesting. Did you contact them or check your t&cs? Dh deals with our car insurance but I can tell I’ll be looking into this tmr.

We're considering decamping to a flat there for a month

@zippyswife I checked my t&C's and also my breakdown cover (which were renewed pre-covid, unlike my annual travel insurance, which I didn't give much thought to as I didn't think I'd be travelling, and now excludes anything covid related)

Just copying and pasting this from another thread...

"Cases have gone down a bit over the past couple of days. You can find the official government figures here:

www.santepubliquefrance.fr/dossiers/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-chiffres-cles-et-evolution-de-la-covid-19-en-france-et-dans-le-monde

The UK media reports are based on the 7-day average, which is still high after a big spike at the end of last week."

[quote pettyprudence]@zippyswife I checked my t&C's and also my breakdown cover (which were renewed pre-covid, unlike my annual travel insurance, which I didn't give much thought to as I didn't think I'd be travelling, and now excludes anything covid related)[/quote]
My breakdown cover definitely doesn't apply if travelling against FCO advice. Ice checked the terms and conditions of my car insurance and it doesn't mention anything other than EU cover (third party) is included until Dec 2020.

No, my car insurance doesn't mention anything about it either, but I called Direct Line to ask, and that was the advice I was given. I also have an annual travel insurance policy through work which renews every January, and that no longer covers for COVID-19, as the company suddenly changed their mind on that.Where insurance companies are concerned, you can guarantee they are not in existence for the benefit of the insured parties!

I should add that I had paid the extra to have our car insurance upgraded to fully comprehensive in the EU, so was issued a 'green card' to demonstrate this. But it still doesn't provide cover. Still worth checking directly with your insurance company though - maybe others will take a different view?