Returning from France

[lesley.crinson1]

We are going to France in September for three weeks and we intend to get our covid tests for our return done in France rather than take them with us. We are aiming for Southern Burgundy.

Can anyone suggest somewhere nice that we could stay for the three days before our return which is within easy reach of the tunnel for our 11.20 return. Its a Thursday so we can get our tests from Monday onwards.

We aren't familiar with tNorth east France and have never used the tunnel before as we live in the North East of England and have always crossed either western routes or Newcastle to Amsterdam.

We're not booking anything but I'm a bit daunted with Brexit, Covid etc and think it would be easier just to find somewhere within reach of the tunnel that has enough to put in three days and be able to sort the tests out when we get there...... any suggestions most welcome.

 

[keithlewis56.kl]

Watten aire, 40mins from tunnel, chemist in town does the test €25

[slowdriver]

Solving this problem takes a bit of planning. You would be wise to first identify a town with a campsite and with a pharmacy that can do the test that's within an hours drive of Calais (Saint Omer for instance) before you depart for France. This saves all the faffing about with bad wifi, mobile signals, failing batteries etc when there.

 

To do this you need

- Google maps to identify towns within an hours drive (Saint Omer is 45 minutes by car)

 

- Find a nearby campsites. I use Searchforsites for this:

https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/?latlng=50.53333,2.63333

 

- Use this french website to discover and confirm that there are pharmacies in the town you propose to stay in or near (there are seven in or on the edge of Saint Omer)

https://www.sante.fr/cf/carte-depistage-covid.html

 

On the www.sante.fr website you use the drop down menus to search for the town, and then filter the results according to the type of test you want (Antigen tests are I BELIEVE - OK and cheaper at 25€ than PCR tests) and also to filter where you want to get the test. Pharmacies are easier than labs to find in my experience.

 

Then check that the pharmacy will be open the day before your return.

 

Then your done.

 

Book the campsite when in France or before you go.

Phone the pharmacy to check they can do the test and book a convenient time within 72hrs of your departure. (I normally make this call 4 days before my return.)

Get to the campsite in time to do the test and get the result and then the next day go to your Tunnel departure.

 

I outlined the pharmacy process in more detail here:

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Advice-about-Covid-tests-when-returning-from-France/58640/

[brugge]

Also be aware not all pharmacies carry out covid tests!

[witzend]

brugge - 2021-08-25 3:11 PM

 

Also be aware not all pharmacies carry out covid tests!

 

But heres a list of he ones that Do

 

https://www.sante.fr/cf/carte-depistage-covid.html

[keithlewis56.kl]

did you not see earlier reply, Watten aire, just 5 miles north of St omer,40mins from tunnel, chemist in town does the test €25, no booking needed, just walk in, i returned yesterday.

[Derek Uzzell]

A ‘campsite’ alternative might be this one at Autingues

 

https://www.pitchup.com/campsites/france/nord-pas-de-calais/pas-de-calais/autingues/camping_caravanning_saint_louis/

 

with a pharmacy carrying out lateral-flow tests at Ardres about 2km away.

 

https://www.sante.fr/pharmacie-dofficine/ardres/pharmacie-demarez

 

(Ardres itself has a large lake and there are several campsites there or nearby - availability in September/October 2021 would need to be checked.)

[derek500]

Bit off topic but we've just booked a package tour to Spain with Tui. As we're both double jabbed more than two weeks before departure we bought their 'green' package.

 

£20 each from Chronomics.

 

UK return package: Green or Amber

Check the FCDO website for which package you need here

You’ll get your tests 3 days before you travel

Green and Amber include a Test To Return kit to take with you on holiday

Green includes a Day 2 kit for when you get back to the UK, Amber includes Day 2 and Day 8 kits

Upgrades from Green to Amber are available if your country changes lists (within order cutoff times only)

 

Don't know what they charge for non Tui customers, but it saves a lot of hassle looking for chemists and pre-booking the Day 2 test of which proof is required before returning to the UK.

[Derek Uzzell]

My neighbours recently visited a Greek island for a family wedding travelling with Tui. They told me the price of the COVID-19 testing kit Tui offered and I was startled how inexpensive this was.

 

Chronomics states their charges for non-Tui test kits as £28 for “Test to Return” and £128 for the Days 2 & 8 PCR tests. So the equivalent cost to your Tui £20 woud be £156.

[derek500]

Derek Uzzell - 2021-08-28 6:59 AM

 

My neighbours recently visited a Greek island for a family wedding travelling with Tui. They told me the price of the COVID-19 testing kit Tui offered and I was startled how inexpensive this was.

 

Chronomics states their charges for non-Tui test kits as £28 for “Test to Return” and £128 for the Days 2 & 8 PCR tests. So the equivalent cost to your Tui £20 woud be £156.

 

Gosh!!! Mind you a double jabbed wouldn't need the day 8 test. Still a small fortune, though. Shame the ferry companies can't match or get close to £20.

 

This postal/online method seems much easier than going to pharmacies. Even at £28 seems on a par with French chemists' prices, without the hassle.

 

[lesley.crinson1]

slowdriver - 2021-08-25 2:13 PM

 

Solving this problem takes a bit of planning. You would be wise to first identify a town with a campsite and with a pharmacy that can do the test that's within an hours drive of Calais (Saint Omer for instance) before you depart for France. This saves all the faffing about with bad wifi, mobile signals, failing batteries etc when there.

 

To do this you need

- Google maps to identify towns within an hours drive (Saint Omer is 45 minutes by car)

 

- Find a nearby campsites. I use Searchforsites for this:

https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/?latlng=50.53333,2.63333

 

- Use this french website to discover and confirm that there are pharmacies in the town you propose to stay in or near (there are seven in or on the edge of Saint Omer)

https://www.sante.fr/cf/carte-depistage-covid.html

 

On the www.sante.fr website you use the drop down menus to search for the town, and then filter the results according to the type of test you want (Antigen tests are I BELIEVE - OK and cheaper at 25€ than PCR tests) and also to filter where you want to get the test. Pharmacies are easier than labs to find in my experience.

 

Then check that the pharmacy will be open the day before your return.

 

Then your done.

 

Book the campsite when in France or before you go.

Phone the pharmacy to check they can do the test and book a convenient time within 72hrs of your departure. (I normally make this call 4 days before my return.)

Get to the campsite in time to do the test and get the result and then the next day go to your Tunnel departure.

 

I outlined the pharmacy process in more detail here:

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Advice-about-Covid-tests-when-returning-from-France/58640/

Thank you!

[Derek Uzzell]

derek500 - 2021-08-28 1:46 PM

 

...This postal/online method seems much easier than going to pharmacies. Even at £28 seems on a par with French chemists' prices, without the hassle...

 

 

As it would seem that - in France - lateral flow antigen tests from French pharmacies are widely available and quite simply obtained on a ‘walk-in’ basis for an outlay of around £25, I’d question your “without the hassle” view.

 

This link describes the pre-return to England test procedure

 

https://www.projectscreen.co.uk/remote-return/lfa-home-test/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5PLT1snV8gIVir7tCh1GsQu6EAAYAyAAEgK9Y_D_BwE

 

and it should be obvious that the traveller needs to have a smartphone and be confident in how to use it. My neighbours are yet to return from abroad, so I don’t know how they got on with the remote LFT test. They told me that it just involved taking photos with their phone of their passport and of the result of the test shown by the test equipment, and then sending those images to the test’s provider - which should be easy enough if one is smartphone-literate and the test app functions properly.

 

Plainly, if one were flying to (say) Albania or China (both on the UK’s amber list) where how a tourist obtains a LFT test might be much more difficult than in France or cost a lot more, taking a LFT test kit with one would be the sensible (perhaps the only practicable) approach.

 

But - for a motorcaravanner coming back from France - I’d rather have the LFT test performed at a French phamacy and pay £25-or-so then and there, rather than pay much the same price (or more) in advance in order to take the LFT kit with me to France and then hope my phone, the LFT app and the internet will all cooperate to permit the test to be taken and the result transmitted back to me.

 

[BruceM]

We are off to France shortly. All the caveats that appear on the government websites undoubtedly make the covid compliance aspect confusing . When it boils down to it though with some preparation, a bit of head scratching and a list it’s not too bad. We’ve,

 

1/ transferred our Vaccination status QR code to the French mob app.

2/ completed our sworn undertaking to comply with French covid rules (has anyone yet been asked for this?)

3/ just ordered on-line our return day 2 PCR tests via P&O’s recommended provider

4/ identified our preferred local French pharmacy for our prior to return antigen tests (as Derek says there are plenty throughout the country)

5/ made a note of the website we need to go to to complete our passenger locator form prior to our UK return.

 

More effort than prior trips and certainly more costly but hopefully next year it will be simpler and cheaper.

[crocs]

BruceM - 2021-08-29 12:26 PM

 

We are off to France shortly. All the caveats that appear on the government websites undoubtedly make the covid compliance aspect confusing . When it boils down to it though with some preparation, a bit of head scratching and a list it’s not too bad. We’ve,

 

1/ transferred our Vaccination status QR code to the French mob app.

2/ completed our sworn undertaking to comply with French covid rules (has anyone yet been asked for this?)

3/ just ordered on-line our return day 2 PCR tests via P&O’s recommended provider

4/ identified our preferred local French pharmacy for our prior to return antigen tests (as Derek says there are plenty throughout the country)

5/ made a note of the website we need to go to to complete our passenger locator form prior to our UK return.

 

More effort than prior trips and certainly more costly but hopefully next year it will be simpler and cheaper.

 

A top tip for Action 5 above is, before you go, log into the website and ask your device to ‘save password’. Also, save login page as a favourite. That should ensure hassle-free access when needed.

[Derek Uzzell]

For what it’s worth, the Money section of Saturday’s “Telegraph” newspaper carried a complaint about completing the Passenger Locator Form (PLF), where a person flying back to the UK (not from France) had bought a PCR test kit from Boots and put the wrong reference to this kit on the PLF and being refused boarding on the plane as a consequence.

 

The problem seemed to be due to a combination of the complete exercise being carried out by the traveller in a hurry via a smartphone and Boots’s wording on the information given the traveller not being 100% crystal-clear. Boots eventually refunded the cost of the PCR kit.

 

Motorcaravanners are unlikely to suffer similar problems, but it might be worth checking EXACTLY what needs to go on the PLF and ensuring that the right data is transferred.