We are considering a trip to the Alsace region and perhaps Lyon in November/December. Once our plans are firmed up, we will apply for the Pass Sanitaire. We know that the weather will be cooler with fewer options for outdoor seating.
For those who have recently traveled in France, have you had a good experience dining? Were take-out options available? How did you manage?
Thank You!
This is how we manage. We walk in. They scan our health pass. We sit down and dine. This is to let you know that thanks to the health pass and masks, we are living normal lives over here. The government app that tracks COVID says today that 85.3% of the adult population is fully vaccinated, and over the weekend only 1,120 cases were reported in metropolitan France and all its overseas departments and territories. Numbers are always low on the weekends, but they are under 4,000 per day on week days
So get your Pass, fly over, stay masked, and eat anywhere and anyway you want. Have a good time.
Thank you Bets for your quick response!
That sounds great!
I never received my Pass Sanitaire. The CDC card worked fine.
Good to know silaswild!
Thank you!
I think the CDC card works great in Paris, Nice, and places like that where a lot of tourists go. That may not be the case for less touristy areas. A friend of mine just moved to Valence and did not get her pass until a few days after her arrival in France and she found that most restaurants that she went to during the first couple of days did not recognize the CDC card. The same is true for another friend who went to Brittany last month to visit her in-laws.
I appreciate the encouraging responses!
Cheers!
We just returned from Paris, Reims & Epernay. This was a pleasure and pleasurable trip and we were fine complying with the government requirements. We both received our Health Passes before we left (one arrived 15 minutes after submission and the other in 15 days)
In Paris, we mostly ate outside because the weather was amazing. We were only asked for our Passes twice (after we were seated). We ate inside twice and were asked for our passes at the door. We were never asked for our Passes at our local grocery store, bakery or any retail shops.
In Reims and Epernay we were asked for our Passes on the TVG but not the regional train. We were also asked for our Passes before we could take mini-bus tour. In the towns themselves we were asked for our passes to eat either inside or outside but not asked for Passes to enter the Pharmacy or retail shops.
Remember you will need a Covid-19 test at least 3 days before returning to the US. Be prepared to have your Health Pass and passport kept while your test is processing. It's only 20 minutes but it was a long 20 minutes.
"Be prepared to have your Health Pass and passport kept while your test is processing. It's only 20 minutes but it was a long 20 minutes."
Wow, I've never heard of this before. I and my two traveling companions had to be tested at the end of September for our return to the US and no one asked us for any ID or for our health passes. My health pass was loaded on my phone so would I have had to give my phone to the pharmacist to hold for 20 minutes along with my passport?
Health passes are not necessary to go into grocery stores or shops.
Nor are they required on regional trains.
I had a great experience with dining in France. Weather was nice so I was dining al fresco most of the time. I think restaurants are less crowded than usual and I was able to get a table at some great restaurants.
I would recommend trying to get reservations if it's a popular spot for dinner and they accept reservations. Plenty of restaurants allow you to book reservations online.
My response deals only with the quality of restaurants that we encountered on this trip. Our trip was a mixture of medium hotels and some upscale/luxury hotels such as Chateau De La Treyne in the Dordogne etc. We ate in everything from Michelin starred restaurants to tartines at the local Traiteur. We have come to France for many decades and my grandfather was a well known pastry chef in Normandy. Overall, the quality of food in france continues to decline slowly, and things and "produits" - what goes into your food - is not what it was back in the day. That said, food in France, even when it's not that good, is always better than what we get in the US. The average quality of restaurants on this trip was not much changed from what we got in 2019 and that was an unexpected and welcome relief. All of our favorites in Paris were still good and the personnel that we know at these places are still there. In the Province, things are tougher. A number of formerly great restaurants "les bonnes tables" have lost personnel or chefs and it is tough to find good personnel these days. The Michelin business is another, separate problem. There is significant pressure on presentation and "innovation" and that seems to increasingly come at the cost of a good, solid meal. Overall, I would say that you are much more likely to be dissatisfied by a Michelin restaurant these days and much more likely to walk away from a Brassserie or "petit restaurant" dinner feeling you had a great time and got a good value. This is true of Alsace and any where else, although I would say that the gastronomic experience and a high standard remains very much alive in Alsace, the Dordogne, and the Perigord.
Bottom line - stick to the brasseries and the small family owned restaurants where you see locals, and you will not be disappointed. Stick to and learn to enjoy the basics: foie gras, escargots, cheese, tartares, quenelles, and of course the pastries and the wine. If you walk into a place (like the Procope or Laperouse in Paris) and see tourists etc, run the other way.
That's good information and an interesting perspective possumracing47!
Thank you!
I had a conversation with a friend who just got back from France. He never did receive his pass, but he had no problem with restaurants accepting his Canadian issued pass.
We are here now and haven't had a problem with our ontario print outs. Our Passes did just arrive, but we haven't even bothered to upload them to the app.
