First time abroad since Covid-19
Here, as promised, is a short summary of our experience on the road and at the campsite here in France yesterday. Please bear in mind that our starting point was in Germany, so we are not restricted by quarantine requirements in any way.
The drive to the site in Neydens was pretty uneventful except for a couple of delays due to roadworks on the autobahn in Germany and traffic jams on the road around Geneva which forced us to drive straight through the city with the caravan in tow. The German/Swiss and the Swiss/French borders were fully open with no controls whatsoever. All day we saw very few caravans or motorhomes on the road - a handful in Germany but hardly any once we crossed into Switzerland.
When we arrived at the campsite we were told that all facilities were open except the indoor swimming pool and there was a requirement to wear a face mask when entering or leaving the restaurant, but otherwise one should just maintain the required social distancing (and there are ample reminders). Only about 10% to 15% of the regular pitches are occupied but the statics and the couple of pitches that they have with a private sanitary block are apparently fairly well booked. The vast majority of the few guests that there are are French. I only saw one Belgian motorhome and a couple of caravans and motorhomes from Switzerland.
At the moment we don't have any immediate neighbours, the closest being three pitches further on. The sanitary block across the way looks as though it hasn't been used at all since it was cleaned last and they said that they do that four times a day. We had expected to find a bottle of disinfectant there though, so I guess we'll get some of our own when we go shopping this afternoon.
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Yes, you will be Lutz.
We will have Virus cover for both Medical and Cancellation as our intended September trip was booked before a Pandemic was announced and prior to FCO rules coming into play. There are some insurers who will cover the medical aspect but not the cancellation.
Glad everything went well. Everyone should be made to travel through a city with a caravan on the back once in a towing life.
Ours was Vienna in rush hour and Paris by mistake (never to be repeated I hope).0 -
Lutz, glad your trip has worked out nicely, enjoy your stay. many are itching to get over to Europe so any news is always welcome.
I once got stuck in Pamplona on a Motorbike , I couldn't get in the correct lane to get out of the city, I think I went around the city 4 times before making my escape, I wouldn't want to try it with a caravan in tow (with a car!) so well done
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Glad all is going well Lutz! Please continue to update, especially useful as it seems like we will be free to travel from the UK very soon. Names of campsites if on popular routes might be useful and we are keen to hear about restaurants, bars, swimming pools, supermarkets etc. Things that add to the holiday feel apart from being in "La belle France!" These things will make a difference as to if we decide to make the journey.
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Thanks very much Lutz. I remember driving through the centre of Turin by mistake with the caravan in tow in the late 1980s. It was a Friday tea time and I’ve never seen so much chaos. I was the only one stopping at red traffic lights and that didn’t go down well with the locals. In the end I just went with the flow and drove through the red lights as well. Happy days! Enjoy your holiday.
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I also went through the middle of Turin, but on a motorcycle in the early 1990s on my way back from Greece. My trip was uneventful (keeping the sun over my left shoulder) but I put that down to being a Sunday, with virtually empty roads.
I chose the city route as the alternative was a motorway type ring road and I'd been scared witless on one of these earlier in my trip.
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Thanks Lutz very helpful information. I May be going to France in Sept so any further updates would be welcome.
My city adventure with caravan was Nantes in the days before it had a ring road. Went around centre four times before finding an exit! My late wife made me find and alternative route as she wouldn't go back there until it had a ring road!
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For info re insurance. I had to look into this in some depth for considering an existing flying holiday. Basically any bookings made before 14.3 will have full cover.
Anything after drops to cover for medical associated costs only..so pretty basic. I do believe this includes medical repatriation. Nothing else is covered included cancellation due to being required to isolate under the new trace and test regime. When is this likely change....probably not until there is a vaccine (per my insurance advisor)
Note that bookings rescheduled due to Covid will still be covered in full
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Travel insurances vary widely in the cover they provide.
Some new travel insurance policies taken out now for future travel give cover for problems arising from Covid-19 contracted overseas but do not cover cancellation if that disease is caught in UK before departure. Staysure Insurance was the first to move in that direction, then Saga followed. There may by now be others.
Best to go to Specsavers then read the small print.
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Update:
With it being a weekend, a few more visitors are using their standard pitches, but of the 32 'Grand Confort' pitches at the far end where we are standing, only 6 are occupied, so it remains easy to observe social distancing. The sanitary block that serves the 'Grand Confort' pitches is used so infrequently that it's probably cleaned after every usage.
When we went into town to do some shopping we were surprised to see so few people using face masks. I don't know whether it's not a requirement in France but only advice or whether the French are simply a bit more laid back about that sort of thing. It's certainly different to Germany where it's taken more seriously and not only will one get a reminder by the staff if you go into a shop without wearing one, but other customers will give you funny looks, too.
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Is anyone going to venture to France next week before the 6th july which appears to be the date the government has proposed as lifting of restrictions.it appears fromLutz that campsites are reasonably empty so safety shouldn't be an issue
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Thanks for sharing your experience. For the first time in a long time we'd planned to have a UK holiday this summer! We're actually considering forfeiting some of the bookings and heading abroad in August as concerned how UK infrastructure is going to cope - and behaviour in popular locations.
Camping La Columbière is a lovely site, both as a stopover and to stay longer.
We had a couple of nights there a few years ago and headed into Geneva for the day. Didn't take our passports with us and on the way out the border was operational! Panicked and did the most suspicious u-turn. Got away with it and 'escaped' via a quiet road.
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Here are a couple of photos giving one an impression of just how empty the campsite that we are staying at here in France is. No problems with social distancing here, not even in the sanitary block. It's absolute bliss.
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Hope all is going well Lutz? If/when you move on it would be great to hear your experiences in other areas please. No decision made yet for us, France or not? How far to travel etc? Should be far south but hoping to hear from those already travelling as to how normal or otherwise everything feels.
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We returned home the day before yesterday. We had a great time. We especially appreciated the peace and quiet on the campsite with it being so empty. In fact, there were so few guests that we virtually had the sanitary block to ourselves. However, we did notice it slowly becoming busier when we left, mainly with French presumably wanting to stay over their national holiday, the 14th. There were only a handful of caravans/motorhomes that were not from France and none from the UK (yet).
The return journey was as uneventful as the trip there except for a massive traffic jam of over 10 miles just south of Heidelberg which cost us the best part of 2 hours.
Social distancing wasn't an issue in surroundings like this:
Geneva and the lake in the background
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A report from a UK citizen living in the Dordogne says that the Prefect (local government officer) has banned all the usual summer events such as fetes, fairs, night markets, concerts, and anything involving groups of more than ten people. Things are clearly not the same as they were.
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Lutz. The site looks lovely. Was the holdup near Heidelberg caused by long term road works? We will probably be going that way end Aug en route Darmstadt (visiting family) to Italy but could go via Wurzburg if the road works there are finished!
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I think that applies just about everywhere. Even in Germany which has got off relatively lightly as far as infections are concerned and where practically everything else is back to normal fetes, major events such as wine and beer festivals remain banned for the foreseeable future.
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