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Report: Flew into France (CDG) Aug 24 – passe sanitaire experience (first 2 days)

COVID and the rapidly-evolving travel requirements related to it required some major adjustments to our planned summer 2021 Europe trip, substantially increasing our time spent on trip planning. I thought our experience might be useful to others so am sharing our initial experience with passe sanitaire in France.

We two flew from Seattle on Delta and landed in France on Aug 24, with passe sanitaire loaded onto our TousAntiCovid apps in our mobile phones. (We had applied on Aug 9 and received the passe’s on Aug 10).

SeaTac Airport checkin (Mon Aug 23) for 7:50am flight. Online checkin not possible as Delta needed to review our documentation. At checkin Delta reviewed and returned 3 physical documents from each of us: passport, CDC card, and a filled out / signed French government form attesting to our COVID-related health. We did not need to show the CDC card nor the form again.

Charles de Gaulle Airport immigration (Tue Aug 24) after 8:10am arrival. French immigration viewed 3 documents from each of us : passport, boarding pass, and pass sanitaire. For the pass sanitaire we displayed the QR code on our mobile phones. The immigration agent scanned the QR code. [EDIT 8/29: Note 8/29 reply by Bill B - French Immigration accepted his CDC card on that date, as he had not yet received a passe sanitaire.]

Flight and Charles de Gaulle Airport - add’l info.

  • On the plane the flight attendants distributed, had us fill out, and then collected forms from the French government that reported on the health status of passengers, as well as their (first) address in France. One form for each family. Not 100% certain, but apparently the information would be used for contact tracing in the event a passenger was later found to have had COVID (or any other contagious malady) during the flight.

  • Before landing the Delta flight attendants distributed surgical masks as they said that CDG requires this type of mask, and that you could be fined otherwise. Several flights landed about the same time as us, so there was a crush of people lining up for immigration; many were wearing cloth (not surgical) masks, but we didn’t see anyone reprimanded. No social distancing enforced in the immigration wait line. After our 8:10am arrival, walking to the immigration line (we had only carryon luggage), and waiting about 50 minutes in the immigration line, we were on our TGV platform about 20 minutes before the 9:46am departure. (BTW, Air France has a tool on their web site for calculating how long it takes to travel between two points in CDG Airport -- including wait times. The amount of time it calculated for our trajectory was very close to the actual amount we required.)

CDG INOUI TGV from Charles de Gaulle Airport to the Loire Valley. After getting through immigration, we caught a 9:46 INOUI TGV train. Before being allowed entry to the platform area our pass sanitaire QR codes were scanned. Masking was required inside the train, on the TER local train we rode afterwards, and within the train stations.

Since arriving we have dined at 2 restaurants; both scanned our passe sanitaire upon entry. We have also visited 2 attractions; both scanned our pass sanitaire upon entry.

Based on the languages we have heard spoken in Amboise, most tourists we encountered appear to be from France with some from other European countries and a smattering from N. America. Everyone is masked inside (when not eating), and most also outside when in crowded locations.

In addition to loading the passe sanitaire into the TousAntiCovid app in our mobile phones, we also brought along a couple of hard copies we printed out -- just in case.

Posted by
10111 posts

Great info, thanks for posting Jeff. Hope y’all have a wonderful visit. Smart thinking on bringing a few hard copies.

Posted by
14648 posts

Thanks so much for your update. I agree that a hard copy of the pass is a good back up...and hoping I'll have the Pass soon, lol!

Hope you are having a wonderful time, wish I was there!

Posted by
2679 posts

Thank you for taking the time to post! Much appreciated!!

You've made me super jealous about your QR code. We've got one back so far for our group of four;)

Posted by
3262 posts

Thank you Jeff!

This is excellent info.

Enjoy your time in France!

Posted by
56 posts

Count us in on being super jealous that you received your QR code! lol. We leave in 48 hours, and no code yet, but we will "keep our knees bent" and hopefully our CDC cards will suffice until if/when we receive a QR code.
Your firsthand account is very helpful and we really appreciate your post! We are very excited, but anticipate some bumps along the way.
Cheers from Anacortes,
Diane

Posted by
707 posts

Thank you for the report. It is interesting to see the differences. Here in the CdA mask wearing outside is pretty rare, even though it is required. Maybe 5% of people and maybe 20% at the marche. 100% compliance indoors, except in restaurants (you don't see masks being taken off and on) Our mix of French has declined with the rentree and I hear French, Italian, German, American English and a smattering of slavic languages.

Posted by
18 posts

We arrived at CDG yesterday morning (8/29) on Air France from Minneapolis. On our flight the flight attendants also distributed and collected the form that Jeff mentions above. The arrival process at CDG was very smooth and speedy. At passport control, we presented our passports along with our CDC cards (which is all we have to document our status since our QR still have not been received yet). The agent reviewed our CDC cards and passports and then sent us on our way with no questions asked.

So far, for the few places we've been in Paris, our CDC cards have sufficed in lieu of a true pass sanitaire. I think today (8/30) we'll venture out and visit one of the pharmacies and try and get our CDC cards converted entered into the system so we can get QR codes, but it seems that the CDC cards are working OK for the moment.

Posted by
10111 posts

outdoor mask protocol is different in different French cities even though the rules are the same everywhere.

Masks are not required outdoors except in "crowded areas"

In fact, they are required outdoors in some départements. the rules on this have changed since earlier this summer, and some departements now require you to wear a mask even outdoors.

Posted by
972 posts

Jeff, is TousAntiCovid an app we should load on our phones? I haven't received my Pass Sanitare via email yet.

Posted by
29 posts

I loaded that app and uploaded the QR code into it. I received my code, my husband didn't. He reapplied today. We'll see what happens.