Coronavirus Travel Update

As of 17/03/2020, the UK Government is advising against all non-essential travel abroad for an initial period of 30 days.

At the moment most cross channel services are still operating including Brittany Ferries, DFDS, Eurostar and The Shuttle, albeit on reduced timetables, in both directions.

However travel in France is severely restricted by Presidential decree: people are not allowed to leave their homes or be on the roads unless they have a printed off declaration with them, to explain why they are out.

There are five reasons the general public are allowed outside their homes and they are as follows:

- travel to work, only if working from home is impossible.

- going to pick up essential supplies, from Government approved establishments.

- for health reasons ie. doctor or hospital appointments (though increasingly patients are taken to hospital by the army).

- for family reasons, to attend to someone vulnerable, either a dependent child or elderly relative.

- taking a dog for a walk, or individual exercise but people must remain close to home to do this.

In terms of travelling through France (say driving off the tunnel or ferry), this is only permitted under the following circumstances:

- If you are returning to to your main residence.

- Essential work in France.

- If you are medical staff.

So yes, you can enter for those reasons but once there must abide by the restrictions above, which initially remain in place for two weeks.

So at the moment in France, every time you leave your home you need to fill in a form, and it needs to be a new form for each trip. The form can be downloaded here (although the Interior Ministry's site was clearly struggling with traffic levels on Tuesday morning).

Hope that helps to clarify the position, we will keep you updated as the situation develops, and of course keep sending you lovely properties so that you can enjoy browsing from home for the time being!

Stay Well and if you want some interesting reading then you can of course Get Your Free PDF Guide to Health Care in France here

Kind regards, 
Sharon Evans 
Founder of Clé France.

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