Cherbourg this easter ( or near future)

[Barton Seagoon]

The advance info given by the marina is:
1) After we've berthed go to the marina office. No need to reserve a visitor's berth.

2) Skipper to send a PAF form to the Cherbourg PAF (Police aux Frontières) with boat and crew passport details.

3) The marina office will call Cherbourg PAF, and we either walk to the PAF office, or they will come to the marina. They will stamp our passports.

4) When we leave skipper sends another PAF form to the PAF office, and arrange them to stamp our passports again. This might be a bit of a pain ... if we tell them we're only staying a few days they might stamp our passports at the same time as they stamp them for entry. We will have to play this by ear when we get there.

Here is a link provided by the marina that explains the process (same page that was posted by DJE last Friday)
https://www.portchantereyne.fr/port-chantereyne/votre-escale-a-port-chantereyne/preparer-votre-escale-a-port-chantereyne-2014.html

 

[ashtead]

I assume based on above the skipper sends from uk before departing home and you are just going to the marina and sailing back to uk a few days/weeks later.

 

[steveph]

Here's our real life experience from this week. We did not send any forms beforehand. The arrival process was very straightforward and along the lines of what DJE and Barton say -

We arrived Cherbourg Wednesday 19:30, tied up for the night and then checked in at the marina office around 9:30 Thursday morning as normal. We asked about passports and the lady offered to call for us to see if they would come to the boat but we would then have to wait onboard for their arrival so we chose to walk there via town.

I completed the form from the link over a coffee in town and emailed it on. Then walked (about 10 mins) to the 'Police Aux Frontiers' office. It's between two buildings at the back of a small car park - you don't see the sign until you've walked through. Just buzz for the door to open and ask at the desk for your passport to be stamped. The officer we saw was friendly and spoke better English than my French! There was no mention of forms, length of stay or anything - just checking and stamping of the passport like I had at Euro Tunnel in March.

So there you are - nothing to put anyone off from visiting
When I leave, bound for Guernsey, I will send the same form updated for departure.

That was our experience with border control. I imagine customs is as it always has been - I have never been searched by customs on the boat and no sign this time. If you are one of those unlucky ones who attract their attention I think there is nothing in the border process to make that any better or worse.

Based on this experience I guess that if I forgot to declare myself in Cherbourg while on transit to Guernsey I would be unlikely to be noticed and wouldn't get in too much trouble if I was. But if I was planning a summer cruise of the French coast I would make sure I didn't forget to check in at a port of entry just in case checked at a minor port.

Enjoy your sailing to Cherbourg and beyond!

 

[Dunx]

@steveph any COVID bureaucracy to deal with?

 

[LadyInBed]

checked in at the marina office around 9:30 Thursday morning as normal. We asked about passports and the lady offered to call for us

As I expected, marina office has always been very helpful.

 

[Slowboat35]

Presumably then we have to both enter and leave France via a port of entry. What a pain.
Is the form generic and just requires sending to a different e-mail address?

 

[Barton Seagoon]

We got back from our trip yesterday. The process described by the marina worked very easily. Our skipper had sent the forms in advance, and nobody on the French side wanted to even see our passports, never mind stamp them. They also didn't want to see any Covid vaccine status. We moved along to St Vaast the next day, and met a boat over from Gosport that had come in direct, not via a designated port of entry, and were going to go directly back home the next day. No local officials came to bother them about that.
Coming back to UK (no wind in the channel and drizzle - grrrr), our skipper sent the form by email when we got back within mobile data range, then phoned the Yacht Line 30 minutes later. They were helpful and professional, and told us that on this occasion we could go direct to our home berth and disembark without needing customs interference. Of course another time they might decide we have to wait for them to visit.
I echo the advice from steveph - don't let these minor procedures put you off from a visit!

 

[riverteign]

We went to Cherbourg this weekend too. We sent them the arrival form before leaving the UK. When we arrived late afternoon on Saturday we phoned the number provided and were asked to go over to the Frontier Police offices which are about a 15 minute walk from the marina to have our passports stamped. They are at the back of a complex of municipal offices and have the French flag flying over the doorway. It was a quick and efficient process but do remember that you need masks to go into the building. We were planning to leave at 6am on Monday and sent them the departure form on Sunday evening. For departure, they came to us to stamp the passports but we needed to align that with a shift change which meant doing it at 4am . It's a process but it works. The Frontier Police are friendly and it didn't detract from a thoroughly enjoyable weekend in Cherbourg.

 

[lustyd]

One question which maybe I missed, is it just the skipper that goes to the PAF office with passports, or everyone, or it doesn't matter? I feel like in some RYA thing or other I've been told the crew stay with the boat until checked in, but I might have imagined that

 

[riverteign]

Everyone needs to go as they need to confirm identity from the photo before stamping. When they are doing the stamping remotely, they radio back to the office to check their databases.

 

[st599]

Do we know if the EES terminals are going to be portable? It may be that the officer visiting the boat isn't possible come September

 

[steveph]

@steveph any COVID bureaucracy to deal with?

No Covid questions or checks. We had our updated UK certificates incase and also had the French TousCovid app with our certificates which isn’t a requirement - just a courtesy. On our experience (restaurants etc) it wasn’t asked for.

 

[steveph]

Presumably then we have to both enter and leave France via a port of entry. What a pain.
Is the form generic and just requires sending to a different e-mail address?

Yes. The form is generic but the email address was specific to Cherbourg.

 

[lustyd]

Does anyone know if there's a list of email addresses for various ports? Can't seem to find mention of the form or email for St Malo, every reference to the form gives Cherbourg as an example