Plan B: where to stay during isolation period/Paris

Restaurant delivery and grocery delivery are common, so getting food wouldn’t be difficult. I successfully ordered restaurant delivery online several years ago in Germany and I don’t speak more than 3 words in German. There was a English button! I’m sure the process has improved greatly in last year.

Personally, I would much prefer to be in an apartment with access to a kitchen, laundry and hopefully more than 130 square feet of space if I had to quarantine for 10 days.

As for someone to help advise on getting a dr.’s letter, medical facilities will have someone that speaks English. Pharmacists speak English and there’s a pharmacy on every other corner it seems. The clinic or pharmacy where you get tested can direct you on the next steps.

That said, we’ve stayed at the Hotel Residence des Arts and it might work for you. The Jr suite has a mini fridge, microwave, 2 burner stove. The room is made up of a sitting room separated from the bedroom by a curtain. It is very spacious. The bathroom is huge with separate tub and shower. The hotel has a restaurant, so you could probably have food brought to you. Tons of restaurants within a block for deliveries, and a grocery within a couple blocks.

Or look for an airport hotel, they probably have experience with such matters and may have a wing or group of rooms set aside for those quarantining. There are now several hotels right at CDG to choose from, as well as the Sheraton which is literally inside terminal 2.

I would check on the details of food availability before committing to an airport hotel. Maybe they have 24-hour-a-day room service, for all I know, but I was unable to get anything hot to eat before 7 PM, which I found odd for a large airport hotel, French cultural norms notwithstanding.

I do not know of any mandatory 10 day isolation requirement for those testing Covid positive. I have read that this is the estimated time those unvaccinated may need to wait for a negative test but as soon as one has a negative test, there should be no further travel restriction. For those already vaccinated, this may only be a 5 to 7 day wait.

There are any number of reasons I should prefer to stay in Paris if testing Covid positive; availability of groceries, food delivery, 24 hour pharmacies, and medical assistance if needed (SOS Médecin for example). Citadine, Adagio, or any of the other apartment hotels in Paris are excellent options for a mandatory lockdown.

Those receiving a positive Covid test should also receive some instruction for basic steps to be taken. There is really not a lot someone might do to prepare for an unexpected positive test: carry appropriate travel insurance, sufficient medication for an extra two weeks, and carry your laptop if you need to check in at work.

First: To answer your question: an apartment hotel is a very good solution. The desks are open 24/7, you have a little 2-burner induction, a micro-wave, and mini-fridge. We stayed in one for a couple of weeks and were satisfied.

I wasn't going to answer this thread because you had already read my account, so this is really for Tocard, based on my experience with a breakthrough case 13 days before flying to the US.

If you test positive, your isolation is a mandatory 10 days. You receive an interview telephone call from the Sécurité sociale/ French health insurance, that tells you what you can do, how they can help you, and the representative follows the call with a letter via email stating the dates of your isolation period. Your isolation period is based on what you tell them is the date of your first symptoms.

Your QR code/Pass sanitaire switches to invalid for ten days, starting with the day of your test. You need this Pass to board any flight originating in France whether domestic or international. You also need it to board a train but verification of the Pass for train travel is spotty. Therefore, the absolutely earliest you can fly is day 11. My husband's Pass sanitaire did not come back online over the weekend, so his was invalid for 13 days rather than 10. Therefore, you have two sets of dates, which could differ: isolation dates and Pass sanitaire invalidity period.

Testing: as stated on the CDC website and on the French government website, a person who tests positive will continue to test positive beyond the 10 days although the person is considered recovered. According to research, a vaccinated person is contagious for 6 days on average, but positive test results continue beyond the 10 days. The CDC says people can test positive for up to 90 days, but let's assume that small breakthrough cases are a lot less. A friend in Germany, who had to retest in order to resume volunteer work, tested negative 2 weeks after the end of isolation. Therefore, you can't simply retest 6-7 days after the positive, receive a negative test, and board a plane.

What does happen is your Pass sanitaire reactivates around day 11, or so. You are instructed by the CDC not to test but to get a letter clearing you to fly from either a doctor or local health authority. Then you can fly back to the US. There is a box on the CDC attestation form for "recovered" people who have tested positive, which takes into account the prolonged period of positive test results despite being recovered.

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All that is required to board a flight to the US is a negative Antigen test taken no earlier than the day before departure. A negative Antigen test is a valid pass sanitare good for 24 hours from when it was taken. However, having a valid pass sanitaire is not a requirement to leave France on a US bound aircraft.

If you have previously tested positive for Covid, there is no further restriction on your leaving France to return to the USA as soon as you have a negative Antigen test.

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/fr-proof-negative-test.html

"All that is required to board a flight to the US is a negative Antigen test taken no earlier than the day before departure."

Well, that's the problem. You might not get a negative antigen test only 10 days after you test positive, hence the alternate rule for a statement from a health care provider saying you've recovered from Covid within the last 90 days.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

CDC verbiage on how they count isolation days (which is when you test positive. - Quarantine is when you have been exposed but have not tested positive yet)

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fif-you-are-sick%2Fquarantine.html

Thank you for the feedback and suggestions! I will continue to make a Plan B, though with each passing day bringing more news about the very rapid spread of Omicron, January is looking less and less desirable as a time for this trip. Will begin working on Plan C: cancel trip in January and reschedule for later in 2022.