Should I stay or should I go now, so The Clash song went. We’ve been considering it for the last 24 hours and have finally decided to GO.
With 10,000s rushing to get back last night by train, boat and plane to avoid the 14 day quarantine which started at 4am it’s a tough call. A few things swung our decision to go.
- Despite threats, the French are yet to announce any kind of reciprocal action. So far there appears to be no requirement to quarantine when we arrive in France and no locator form to complete. If a legally enforced quarantine were to have been announced our holiday plans would have been scuppered.
- Our travel insurance does appear to cover us at least to some extent. Despite the Foreign Office advice that ‘only essential travel’ is allowed our bank’s worldwide travel insurance policy is only voided when the FCO advise against ‘all travel’. Also Mrs Jones’ policy still covers us for medical expenses.
- We can change our minds if we don’t like what we find in France. We’ve got three weeks off and if what we’re not happy when we get there we can always head back sooner making use of our flexible Brittany Ferries return ticket.
Though we’ve made our decision, we still have lots of doubts:
- Are we being selfish? Should we just be doing our bit and staying in the UK? The thing is our mode of transport by campervan on well spaced out campsites makes us less likely to catch Covid than if we were at home. That’s the difference between France and Spain for many holiday makers – there are much fewer big resort hotels with many people instead camping, staying in gites or their own villas. The crazy thing about last night’s big rush to get home is that those disperse travellers will have been forced to mix with each other at ports, airports and railway stations making social distancing impossible.
- What if France or parts of France go in to full lockdown again. This could make getting home more difficult. The French have said a full lockdown is not going to happen but in today’s world you can never be sure of anything so we’ll have to keep listening to the news and react quickly.
- Then, of course, we will almost certainly have to quarantine when we get home which won’t be fun though thankfully Mrs Jones can work from home.
With all these doubts and concerns I’ve never approached a holiday with a greater sense of anxiety. Even at the best of times leaving your home behind and all that goes with packing, travelling and visiting another country brings a certain amount of stress.
That feeling has never been more intense right now but we’ve made our mind. We’re going, so let packing commence and let’s see what the coming days and weeks bring.