Britons Scramble to Get Out of France before the UK Deadline

Photo: Jon Santa Cruz REX

(AP) - Cars lined up at ports while trains and planes filled out fast as British tourists scurried to get out of France on Friday before a deadline that would require them to quarantine at home for two weeks.

Families cut summer vacations short and other travelers made hasty plans to return to the U.K. by whatever means possible before the 4 a.m. Saturday deadline. Eurostar trains between Paris and London and airport lounges that were almost empty earlier in the coronavirus pandemic filled with passengers. Those with more means opted for private jets.

The exodus was prompted by the British government’s decision late Thursday to take France off a list of nations exempt from traveler quarantine requirements because of a sharp rise there in new virus infections. For those who cannot work from home on their return, the mandatory self-quarantine could see them penalized financially.

The U.K. move has the potential to upend the plans of those planning trips in the days ahead, particularly of families during the run-up to schools reopening in September. French businesses running campsites in Brittany, wine-tasting tours in the Loire Valley or mountain treks in the Alps also have reason to worry.

The French government has indicated it will respond in kind to Britain’s decision, further hobbling travel and tourism at a time when the industry is trying to recover from the economic shock of the pandemic.

The British government insists it had to make the decision in light of a 66% spike in confirmed coronavirus cases in France in the past week. The Netherlands, Malta, Monaco and the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Turks & Caicos were also added to the U.K.’s quarantine list for the same reason.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the decision shouldn’t have been a big surprise since the government had consistently said it would monitor infection rates when assessing its list of safe countries.

The decision means returnees from the two most popular European summer holiday destinations for British tourists face quarantining. Last month, Spain, the number one destination, was taken off the exempt list.

In France, there’s a growing fear of a second spike of the outbreak. Health authorities on Friday reported 2,846 new virus cases in 24 hours, bringing the total for the week to over 12,900. The head of the country’s national health service said Paris and Marseille, have been declared at-risk zones.