Vocal Voices

Suff on Café thread wrote:Tomorrow night I have to drive through locked down France to get him from Paris when his flight arrives at 08:40. This could be problematical. I will need 3 forms with me. One for each day for me. One for my son. Otherwise the Gendarmes will stop and fine me. €135 per time.

Suff, it is looking like there could be additional lockdown measures in the UK, and I suppose the only thing they can do really is implement the same system as in France of having to acquire paperwork before you leave your house.

How does this actually work in France - how did you get your paperwork, who issued it (local or national, gendarmerie or Government, what were the catagories / restrictions involved?

Hi Ossie,

The form, in France, is available on the government website, It is a form of self attestation that you are going where you say you are going. France works rather differently from the UK, where they don't tell people to be "sensible", they tell people what to do, force them to attest to doing it and then have a range of punishments to fit the transgressions.

For instance not having the form carries an automatic and mandatory €135 fine. Being caught outside with the form incorrectly filled out, or, worse, being used illegally, the fine can go up to €350 on the spot, but can be higher if you are dragged to the tribunal.

Whilst this may work in the UK, I can't see it working in quite the same way.

Interesting, Suff - so, do you have to get a form if you are going down to the village shops or merely out of your house taking exercise, or do you only have to get it if you are leaving your prefecture or whatever?

And do you have to declare on the form the specific "purpose" of your journey?

I'm just interested in how the boundaries are set now in France, and how it could be applied over here should the Government further constrict our movements …..

Ossie, I have 14 forms printed at home, you download a PDF.

You have to have a form, signed and dated, with your address and the location in which you signed it, with the specific purpose listed, for every time you leave your front door.

There isn't really an option for picking your son up on a repatriation flight, but the police were OK with both the form and the stated purpose.

I don't know how much French you read (I can only read the simple grammar and common words), but the forms are here.

Thanks, Suff - I'll take a look at that and ask Mrs O to translate as she's the linguist in the house ….

As is Mrs S...

I do badly in several languages, she does well in every language she decides to learn.

It is missing one.

Terminé pour se conformer à la bureaucratie française. - To comply with French bureaucracy.

Or "To comply with British bureaucracy." which is what I would add to any version set up over here if it was not a preordained option.

WM, that is a given, they would just look at you and tell you it was normal so don't state the obvious....