Travelling to France during COVID - Our experience

Our director recently travelled to France from the UK to begin setting up for the season and shares his experience.

Travelling to France

I drove out to France to help set up the winter operations on the 8th November 21. I wanted to share my experience so you can understand the current climate at the borders in Folkestone and Calais.

So I booked my tunnel crossing like normal and uploaded my passport details onto the app. In the summer when I drove to France, I was required to upload my NHS vaccination QR code PDF which I downloaded from the NHS website. However this time I was only required to upload a completed “Statement of Honour” for the French authorities.

When I arrived at Folkestone the most noticeable difference was the queue on arrival. The tunnel staff were a little swamped by the volume of traffic caused by the time it was taking to check each vehicle and its passengers had the correct documents. The automatic number plate recognition was turned off and the system had to revert to manual checking of documentation and tickets.

Once inside the terminal, passport control at the UK exit was simple and involved only a “wave-on” from the UK border official.

At the French customs post, I wound down the window, the official didn’t check anything and he very quickly stamped my passport, 2 minutes max.

I caught the train with 5 minutes to spare. Driving off the train into France was as always. No stopping, no checks.

The whole process was simple, I would recommend only one thing, you arrive at Folkestone at least an hour, if not more before your train departure time.