Made It! Travel Canada to France

Nelly, glad this is working out for you, your husband, and your dog. Have you traveled with your dog before, and how long were those trips? You probably have all the canine arrangements and adjustments figured out, if this has been a regular part of your process.

Interesting if the American was trying to make a round-about trip to Paris by way of Calgary - maybe a long way to go to just get turned around. People adhering to rules are what’s going to help get things back to a more normal for all of us, sooner rather than much, much later.

I wonder, if you’d taken them up on the test offer at the airport, would they have held you up for a long time, waiting for results? And asked for lots of follow-up contact tracing details? Stay well and enjoy your progress towards Italy.

Congratulations, Nelly! I'm so glad you have made it this far.

Congratulations on managing this move. The logistics are hard enough during normal times, never mind with this darn Covid.

Brava! Well done!

Congratulations Nelly!! To the start of a new adventure. I'm glad Italy is allowing holders of new visas to enter; it may be because you are Canadian and not American. France is not allowing Americans with new visas, issued before the lockdown, to enter yet. Only returning visa holders can go.

To answer Cyn's questions: the PCR test offered Nelly is not mandatory in her case. The testing line can be a couple of hours long, per updates from the French Consulat. Yes, it's for contact tracing, too, but to board the plane in the first place, passengers have to fill out papers with all contact tracing information, as well as motive for travel.

The US is on the list, BUT anyone flying from the US has to have test done in the States, and we have to have the test & results within 72 hours before boarding the plane, or we are denied boarding. Those allowed entry from any of the listed countries is very limited: specific resident-visa holders, citizens, medical personnel.

The American at the airport may have had a visa but may not have had her COVID results in time, or lost her French documents allowing entry, or ....

Nelly, so very happy for you. Anyone who has seen your posts over the years will take this one in the spirit you intended...factual and to the point about your long-planned journey.

Keep us posted!

Nelly,

Thanks for the update. I've been wondering how you were doing with your moving plans. Hope the rest of your move goes well and you have a wonderful time!

Great to read a travel report.

As an aside, the American may have been acting in good faith (until the police part), wrong boarding denials do happen.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/denied-boarding-transiting-europes-airports-in-the-age-of-covid-19/ar-BB174jMC

Interesting.
I'm glad you all made it with no hiccups....though I would have been stretching my ears to hear why the American lady was denied boarding. …..
Just curious, as a fellow Canadian; what sort of travel insurance did you get?

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. It’s been a long time coming and a lot of hard work, but we’re looking forward to settling into our new little hometown in Abruzzo (where there have been no cases of COVID to date)

To respond to the travel insurance question - we had to buy longer-term expat insurance, not travel insurance, to get our visas. It is a private policy to cover the time before we can join the Italian public health system. It is through MSH Insurance and does include coverage for COVID-19 if needed. When our departure was delayed in April, we had to cancel and then repurchase the coverage when we had a new departure date. The price went up by $1500 (for 2, for a year) in the five month period but still a good choice I think. It’s one of the few to cover COVID. I don’t actually know if they offer shorter-term travel insurance as I only looked at expat coverage. Hope that helps.

@Cyn - our dog has flown to and from Toronto a few times, which is about half the duration of the Paris flight. She’s been on a few longer road trips (8+ hours). But not a lot of travel. I confess we did, with our vet’s support and prescription, give her half a Trazedone to reduce anxiety and help her sleep. We also ran her off her feet all day before the night flight. She did great, no noise or apparent anxiety. But she travels as a qualified ESA, not a pet, so did not need to be in an underseat carrier.

(Just a note that Canada and Europe do not have the same ADA laws that require airlines to allow ESAs. Hence the limitation to WestJet for our flight.)

Glad you made it, Nelly.

I am curious why you had in hand negative Covid tests for flying. It is not required of Canadians, who are on the list of 11 countries (besides Schengen countries and affiliates) whose residents can enter France.

Anyway, glad you made it and hope your progression southward continues to go smoothly.

Kim, it was just an extra precaution to make sure we weren’t bringing COVID with us. We knew it wasn’t required for entry but we wanted to be very sure we were good to go.

Nelly — if only everyone were as thoughtful as you — both in traveling and in life!

if only everyone were as thoughtful as you

.... maybe we'd actually beat the Coronavirus.

Hi Nelly. I sent you a PM.