Hows things in the SOF at the moment?

Adrian

Adrian

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 Jun 2001
Messages
841
Location
Me Midlands, Boat Port Grimaud SOF
www.kydproducts.co.uk
We are due to drive down to Port Grimaud next Thursday, anyone down there can answer a couple of Qs?

Whats it like, are the restaurants/bars open, are servers wearing masks?

My wife is worried about how visitors are being treated, is there any animosity to visitors or are they glad to see you?

We're desperate to get down to the boat but don't want feel uneasy or unwanted!

Thanks
 
Everything is open, we were there 4 weeks ago, tables spaced out a little bit more than usual and some shops ask you to wear a mask, friend of mine was there at the weekend and said it was rammed !
 
My main concern at the moment (having a trip to France already booked) is that UK Gov suddenly do a "Spain" on trips to France as well... worse, when we are there and have no way of avoiding the quarantine requirement...
 
There's nothing to worry about. We returned from SoF 2 weeks ago and it was fine. No animosity to tourists, quite the opposite actually. At the time hardly anyone was wearing masks, at least in Antibes, although I gather there has now been an order from the govt to wear masks in enclosed public spaces. Most of the restaurants and bars were open as well as shops and supermarkets. Sadly though I was told that some that were closed had gone bust

We are going out again this Sunday for 2 weeks and I dont care whether the UK imposes a quarantine on visitors from France or not because the quarantine is fundamentally unenforceable
 
Deleted User said:
We are going out again this Sunday for 2 weeks and I dont care whether the UK imposes a quarantine on visitors from France or not because the quarantine is fundamentally unenforceable
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This may not apply to you ,but the bigger concern is if the airlines stop flying because of quarantine and you end up stranded. I know jet2 and tui have cancelled all their spain (inc balearic & canary) flights since the quarantine was announced, but ryanair and easyjet are still flying.

I'm quarantining at the moment having come back from majorca on Sunday night - initially I was of the view that its unenforceable and it probably is, the fine (£1000) is one thing, but what I didnt realise is that you risk a criminal record if caught. And for me that would really cause problems.
 
julians said:
This may not apply to you ,but the bigger concern is if the airlines stop flying because of quarantine and you end up stranded. I know jet2 and tui have cancelled all their spain (inc balearic & canary) flights since the quarantine was announced, but ryanair and easyjet are still flying.
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True that would be a concern but not insurmountable. You could travel into a neighbouring country and catch a flight from there. For example, anyone in SoF could take a train to Geneva or Genoa because AFAIK Switzerland and Italy are not in danger of being quarantined (yet). Or simply take a train to Calais and jump on a ferry. Or rent a car and dump it at Calais
 
julians said:
I'm quarantining at the moment having come back from majorca on Sunday night - initially I was of the view that its unenforceable and it probably is, the fine (£1000) is one thing, but what I didnt realise is that you risk a criminal record if caught. And for me that would really cause problems.
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Yes good point. However, even if you are caught which is a helluva long shot given that 600,000 Brits are currently in Spain, I dont see how they could make a prosecution stick. So Plod calls at your house and youre not there? You are allowed to leave your home for essential supplies so you might not be there legally anyway. You could claim you were asleep or simply didnt hear the doorbell. Even if they track your mobile, they've got to prove it was on your person

Btw I'm not advocating breaking the quarantine. I'm just trying to point out how stupid the policy is. Its basically political grandstanding when the far better solution is testing all incoming travellers like many other countries are doing
 
Deleted User said:
Yes good point. However, even if you are caught which is a helluva long shot given that 600,000 Brits are currently in Spain, I dont see how they could make a prosecution stick. So Plod calls at your house and youre not there? You are allowed to leave your home for essential supplies so you might not be there legally anyway. You could claim you were asleep or simply didnt hear the doorbell. Even if they track your mobile, they've got to prove it was on your person

Btw I'm not advocating breaking the quarantine. I'm just trying to point out how stupid the policy is. Its basically political grandstanding when the far better solution is testing all incoming travellers like many other countries are doing
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yeah agree - its even more silly because when you fill in the locator form nobody checks that you filled it in accurately, so you can just put Name = M Mouse, address = Disneyland, it all just seems to be for show, rather than achieving anything useful.

You fill the form in online, it then emails you a pdf copy of the form that you show to a person just before you get to the passport check, the person doesnt look at the form andask to compare the details to your passport etc etc, they just take 2 seconds to glance at your phone screen and check its showing the PDF. you could probably just show them a mockup and they'd be none the wiser.
 
Was in Bormes Les Mimosas yesterday. Full of tourists, some wore masks some didn’t. Some behavior has to be modified, for example, don’t just pick up a menu, wait until you are given one. Make sure you have a mask if you want to visit the toilet.
Most restaurant staff wear masks most of the time. And sure, everyone is happy to see you
 
julians said:
You fill the form in online, it then emails you a pdf copy of the form that you show to a person just before you get to the passport check, the person doesnt look at the form andask to compare the details to your passport etc etc, they just take 2 seconds to glance at your phone screen and check its showing the PDF. you could probably just show them a mockup and they'd be none the wiser.
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We went through that bit of Covid security theatre ourselves coming back from France. The stupid thing is that for some reason in iPhones, the form doesnt download from the 2nd email and you have to sign in again from the 1st email to download it. Simply showing the passport officer the email isnt good enough. Several people on our flight were caught out like that including us. Its going to be chaos when several flights arrive back at the same time. I have heard though that at some airports the electronic gates are still open and you dont have show the form at all

Having said that, I have criticised the UK govt elsewhere on this forum for not having a contact tracing system in place for arriving travellers so I suppose I should be congratulating them but what they've actually done seems so clunky
 
Deleted User said:
Yes good point. However, even if you are caught which is a helluva long shot given that 600,000 Brits are currently in Spain, I dont see how they could make a prosecution stick. So Plod calls at your house and youre not there? You are allowed to leave your home for essential supplies so you might not be there legally anyway. You could claim you were asleep or simply didnt hear the doorbell. Even if they track your mobile, they've got to prove it was on your person

Btw I'm not advocating breaking the quarantine. I'm just trying to point out how stupid the policy is. Its basically political grandstanding when the far better solution is testing all incoming travellers like many other countries are doing
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What if you are shopped by your neighbors?
 
Bouba said:
What if you are shopped by your neighbors?
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Yup thats one of the risks but I guess youre not going to tell them youre supposed to be under quarantine? I wouldnt give my neighbours the time of day let alone ammunition like that:)
 
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