Travelling to France with 2 non-vaccinated teenagers

[SidekickSally]

We are travelling to France over October half term with 2 unvaccinated teenagers. We understand they will need to take a COVID PCR or antigen test within 24 hours of arrival and the French gov site say these tests cannot be self-administered. However they then point you to sites where you can purchase these tests and they are tests done at home and then verified by a lab. This seems to contradict "self-administered". Has anyone has experience of this recently?

We did the home LFT Qured test for my 13 yr old. Results back 12 hours after testing. Letter was accepted everywhere he wanted to go. Most places were v interested in checking adults (the toutcovid pass) but 'meh' about waving through teens..

@Janek a QR code is not necessary at the border, only for the passe sanitaire to access facilities, restaurants etc once inside France. Additionally in the summer your teen would only have been checked for a valid test at the border as passe sanitaire was not effective for 12-17 until end September.

That said - good news @AuntLucy treat it was accepted, assuming you travelled recently?!

A friend told me that when she went to France last week her phone with all her Covid records on went kaput, no one cared!

@boismint just last week

I am just back from France with a 12 year old and we ended up doing a French antigen test on the first day as the QR code from her UK PCR didn’t work on their scanners and it was creating confusion (I was worried about night time tourism when we wouldn’t have been able to resolve it). We were in Paris where there were very few English tourists and lots of passe sanitaire scanning. I suspect it would be more relaxed outside Paris tbh but when I take my other daughter in Jan we will just do the cheapest fit to fly here and then go straight to a pharmacie on the other side. Why on earth we can’t double vaccinate like the rest of Europe is utterly beyond me - for kids with family abroad it is creating so many unnecessary problems.

@viques

A friend told me that when she went to France last week her phone with all her Covid records on went kaput, no one cared!

Personally I’d just gently caution planning or assuming on the checking of the passé sanitaire being more relaxed outside the touristy areas, we are well away from the bright lights of Paris but even so the checks are done.

There’s also signs (unfortunately) of a slight upturn in positive cases, etc, and the government is pushing (TV adds etc) the need for continued vigilance, so the checks aren’t going away any time soon..

We are just back from France, we used a self administered test for a teenager and that was accepted at the border and by our hotel on arrival. Its 24 hours for UK arrivals. We used Chronomics, the certificates come through in 15 mins. We didnt actually find that venues asked our teenager for a covid pass at all, so we didnt bother to go to a pharmacy, but they did check the adults. We had to test teenager to get home, obviously. Again used self administered Chronomics test.

We are in Normandy, France, my rather tall 12 year old DS has needed to have his pass checked, the uk covid test result we took was acceptable but was thoroughly checked, just before it expired (72 hours) we went to a pharmacy and he was tested there, got a certificate in 15 mins for €25 that he put into the app - great system. Masks are required inside but not in restaurants, not all restaurants we went to checked, but some did, we ate outside at several though. It's been very easy to be honest.

@viques

A friend told me that when she went to France last week her phone with all her Covid records on went kaput, no one cared!

I find that surprising. My mother was refused entry to a restaurant until she could show her pass sanitaire (she'd left her phone behind and we had to go back to the gite and get it).

I find that surprising. My mother was refused entry to a restaurant until she could show her pass sanitaire

That’s why I cautioned upthread….it’s a requirement that many establishments check the passé and in some towns municipal police have been known to go around checking that the procedure is followed (and that has included checking individual diners in some instances).

I’m sure people have been “managing” without, maybe for a short period of time, but that’s not strictly legit…

No pass no entry to pretty much everything - We have paper copies of everything as back up!