I wish I had the cash to even consider a holiday, lucky you. But if I could, I’d be holed up somewhere in rural France, which is a lot safer than here.

Why any country would want the Brits to come beats me…….arh yes! cash, its all about cash.

@ceepers – what is this healthcare professional quarantine dodge you’re referring to?

@elshalimo as “registered healthcare professionals” we were told last week we wouldn’t have to.

Who knows if that will stand I guess. They all seem to be making it up as they go Along!

Can you travel?

As far as I can see, yes.

And if you can’t see, it’ll be perfectly OK to drive there, so long as you’re going for an eye test 😉

@elshalimo as “registered healthcare professionals” we were told last week we wouldn’t have to.

Who knows if that will stand I guess. They all seem to be making it up as they go Along!

I heard this point raised on my county wide Resilience Forum meeting yesterday (think lots of civil servants, government officers and public health officials) and the response from those responsible for this policy area said it was utter b***ocks. Of course that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

but they invalidate your entire policy. i.e. if I break myself mountain biking, I’m not covered because the FCO were worried about coronavirus.

I’d be very surprised if that stood up to the Ombudsman? Even 20 years ago you couldn’t turn down a fire claim because the burglar alarm hadn’t been turned on, for example, so I’d expect a Covid related exclusion to only relate to a Covid issue.

It’s all a total shower of sh%t… I have just returned from 6 months in Madeira. The island is essentially Covid-free, and the FCO have recognised by adjusting their travel advisory to allow travel there, BUT BoJo’s feckless team have decided to ignore their own FCO and enforce quarantine on those returning from the island… nice way to treat your long-time allies.

Just 24 more hours to go until I am free to leave the house. It can’t come soon enough as I am almost bankrupt through buying new bikes and bike parts and while my wife is still in Madeira, I have pretty much sold everything in the house on Ebay to stop myself going crazy.

What about the scenario if using the tunnel to get back from say Belgium, so you travel through France but never actually get out if the car. Or what if you say stayed in Switzerland but crossed in to France for a few hours whilst in the mountains?
I know what my good old fashioned British common sense would say…

Thanks all for thoughts.

I am WFH but employer has said would have to take unpaid leave if have to quarantine. This is because those that do have to go into somewhere to work in my company couldn’t if quarantining and would have to take unpaid leave. It isn’t very fair if their is one set of rules for those that go into work and those that can WFH.

Still dithering. Would only lose crossing cost so no great loss.

@campalumpa im in exaclt same boat, i see the point, but trying to argue this with the missus is a struggle – supposed to be going on the 13th down near to La Rochelle..

Fair point rasied about the Tunnel – as the quarantine is applied as you come back through – do they actually check where you were first??

I am WFH but employer has said would have to take unpaid leave if have to quarantine. This is because those that do have to go into somewhere to work in my company couldn’t if quarantining and would have to take unpaid leave.

Not wanting to cause trouble for you with your work, but how would they know if you were quarantining or not if your role was exclusively WFH?

Fair point rasied about the Tunnel – as the quarantine is applied as you come back through – do they actually check where you were first??

My brother came back from Paris as foot passenger on Eurostar last week and from France to UK was required to fill in a long form on the UK gov website with details of where he’d been for the previous 2 weeks, and where he would be for the next 2. UK Border Force wouldn’t let them through without showing the completion certificate on his phone.

Don’t know if the same is now required when coming off the Tunnel in a car when passing through the control gates.

(Nothing was required from UK to France)

Well they wouldn’t if I didn’t tell anyone and didn’t post anything on Strava/social media. Partner is a social media junkie who would find 3 weeks without stealth boasts hard.

Plus I am quite senior so should
Be seen to be doing the right thing.

my old man lives in france , runs a bed and breakfast with my mum.

He drove up last saturday – is living with us albe it in our camper van.

when he crossed at newhaven he filled in the form…..

There has been no check to see if any of what he wrote was true…… just wanted the completed form.

I wouldnt be surprised if some of the Spanish decision was at the request of Spain to try and dissuade people from going thereas they don’t want people from a country that has handled it as bad as we have going there.

ElShalimo’s first post on this thread has it. I don’t think Barnier is going to realease any documents for a while so I don’t expect a quatorzaine.

Places to avoid at present because of tourist density and a risk of stupidity: St Jean de Luz, Biarritz, Bayonne, Biscarrosse, Sable-d’Olonne, Lorient, St Malo… .

There is always a chance of quarantine being applied to France. At the moment you are probably safe, but next week – who knows.

We rightly give the Government for confused messages, but just image the confusion if they tried to breakdown a country by region by region with different rules. Some idiots would no doubt holiday in a region with high levels of infection and they go to an airport in other region with lower levels to avoid any quarantine. How do you cope with those idiots?

I do agree that the Spanish islands for direct flights should have a better approach, since they are isolated. But again too many idiots would them demand the same ‘rights’ for other parts of Spain. You really can’t win.

@sadmadlan, do you realize the borders are essentially unpatrolled and totally open? The same thing you say for region goes for countries. Now you can fly to France, drive to me, drive back to France and go home. Or really substitute and country or list of countries there. And the smearing of the borders is incredible, so many people back and forth every day for work, eating, short holidays, riding, shopping etc. It really makes a mockery of trying to divide it up by country. The final thing is that there is zero control, who knows where everyone has been? Nobody, is the truth. The number of British cars in Spain just now is high, but the number of French, Dutch and Swiss is much higher. Like I say, specifying a region is just as uncontrollable as specifying a country within the EU. Contact tracing and testing would be sensible. In Vancouver restaurants and hotels and some other places are required to record peoples ids in a central database so contact tracing can happen. It seems a much more sensible approach.

@andyl I think the major disagreement over Gibraltar a few hours before was a more likely reason.

Reuters have just posted these figures for France average new cases per day, for June 435, July 746, the first 3 days of August 1125.

Don’t know if the same is now required when coming off the Tunnel in a car when passing through the control gates.

We came back through the tunnel last week and the Borderfarce deskjockey wanted to see our completed forms on our phones before letting us in.

Which is lower than the last three days of July, Robert, and manageable in terms of test and trace.

Doug is right about how frontiers have become blurred, in the last month I’ve dined with people in France, German and Poland, and the most recent meal out was with Spanish from the Basque country (as opposed to Basques 😉 ). The places I’ve had to leave my contact details apart from hotels and campsites have been quite limited: Pau stade nautique, the Bundestag, a restaurant in Bavaria, a museum in Lodz, Wansee strandbad.

Just back from France. After observing the behaviours in France (Masks, distancing, alcohol gel etc), including modifying our own (apartment instead of camping, click and collect instead of shopping at supermarket), I am truly shocked by the recklessly complacent attitudes I witnessed England. Masks seem massively lacking, distancing is non existent. Insanity. We reap what we sow…

Came back yesterday, Forms filled in but not asked for either way.

Squeaky bum time as France records two month high in cases…

In some places “the more you test the more you find” holds up and the death rate corresponds to the number of cases being reported three weeks to a month before. Germany and Spain likewise have rising levels of new cases. You can see it as a negative story or a success for test and trace in the respective countries.

A bit of perspective then: the level of new cases now is about double what the death rate was a few months back. 1500 from a population of 66 000 000 isn’t a lot. To get back to over 500 deaths a day as we were in early confinement we’d need new cases in six figures.

Do a bit a of your own checking on countries and compare current death rate with new cases being declares say three weeks back. It’s clear that some places are doing better at tracking down newly infected people than others.

There’s a story there somewhere, perhaps one the BBC don’t want to print because the government doesn’t like to be compared. The use of the term “squeaky bum” suggests you’ve been taken in by the Beeb’s sensationalism.

The use of the term “squeaky bum” suggests you’ve been taken in by the Beeb’s sensationalism.

Nope, it’s because I’m supposed to be travelling tomorrow and if Bojo the clown sees it and imposes quarantine restrictions based on the news story, I’m berjiggered!

Nah, it’ll be if Barnier rattles his cage with another report, someone mentions Gibralta or Trumps tells him.

Just joining the party as we’re due to head out on Sunday. Booked in December…

Just sitting in the car on the Chunnel now. No one even asked about the ridiculously long form we filled in.

Belgium is now on the list….or off the list…you’ll have to quarantine after Friday night

I am truly shocked by the recklessly complacent attitudes I witnessed England. Masks seem massively lacking, distancing is non existen

My dad came north last weekend from arnac pompadour.

Said there was a marked change in social responsibility on show when he crossed the ditch.

Basically in England you’d think it was life as normal certainly at the services. Where as France was pretty robustly enforced at services

Said he was essentially the only one wearing a mask.

Looking at the blurb on the “Transit stop” issue, does travelling by car using Europtunnel cover this. I.e. in the event of France being added to the non-exempt list, if travelling back from Italy driving, would you get stung? We have options (extended family) for Hols, and damily is very keen to get away so looking at what will cause us less issues on return..

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors?utm_source=0f9aa21f-0a18-4c8f-922a-54e0c0e126f9&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate#transit-stops

Looks like it’s going to happen, whether it’s for covid or migrant reasons will come out in the was

Priti vacant-cuboid-odious-git Patel has been making more daft statements.

Watch this space

certainly looks like the trip to Switzerland is on, those transit rules suggest no issues, even if there is a lock down. That is assuming that Switzerland doesn’t close the borders.

That’s interesting that bit about private vehicles wasn’t there earlier…

What’s PP been saying now?

Looking dodgy: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/10/france-on-the-cliff-edge-of-removal-from-uk-safe-travel-list

It looks like UK is to impose isolation on return from France at the end of this week, we had planned a voluntary isolation anyway. That from the hints on many news sites.

What I can’t find is the possibility of a French lockdown or restrictions. I’m looking at a few French news sites and French government pages. Understandably they aren’t making clear announcement ahead of changes.

We’re trying to decide if eldest_oab should return early. We don’t want him caught in Morzine with no travel allowed to get him to Geneva airport.

Any one got links to more insight?

We’re trying to decide if eldest_oab should return early. We don’t want him caught in Morzine with no travel allowed to get him to Geneva airport.

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong (it’s STW!!) but I think last time around people were allowed to travel to leave the country- I think there was a box to tick on the appropriate form to say you were returning to your home country.

Priti vacant

Watch this space

The one between her ears?