Daily Sceptic reader Chris Bullick has travelled to France this week and found a population moving on from the petty pandemic rules whether their Government wants them to or not.
Well, that much agonised over third jab was a waste of time. St. Pancras railway station was a complete zoo. The French border official scanned my passport in the usual insouciant way and waved me through. The other three members of our party did however have their documents scrutinised. I was less than delighted when they suggested that they hadn’t bothered as I “just looked way too old to be unvaccinated”.
They certainly get you in the mood at St. Pancras. With a train for Paris and one for Amsterdam both leaving at six on a Friday evening, the place was slammed. There was a 200 metre queue for the Eurostar down the station concourse. This had a ‘mask checkpoint’ 100 metres in, where Eurostar staff were commanding their passengers to don masks. Which of course everyone sheepishly did – except for me. I was having none of it. “Tell me it’s a legal requirement,” I said, as all the other unmasked passengers heading elsewhere rushed past. “It’s a Eurostar requirement,” they repeated. “But not a legal requirement,” I stated. “So I shan‘t be wearing one,” and walked on unmolested.
However, the passenger behind me made a mis-step. “I’m sorry, I don’t have a mask,” he shamefully confessed. They pounced. Never apologise, never explain. Sent packing off to the shops to buy one, he returned clutching one of those Chinese paper masks currently polluting every major river in the world and costing about one pence to manufacture. To his girlfriend: “It was the last one and cost me £5.” Why do people put up with this utter charade still? If only half of them challenged it they would stop it.
Okay, so it may still be requirement of French law to wear masks on public transport, but St. Pancras is not in France. They do it I guess because it suits them to do it while they process you. They know it would look absurd to tell people to don masks mid-Channel, so they enforce where they can, and passengers are most vulnerable to coercion. Everywhere there are Eurostar signs worded: “You must wear protective masks on our stations and on our trains.” The words “protective” and “our” show you just how much blatant lies are now tolerated by the sleepwalking people.
After that we never wore masks again, not in the Eurostar, the Gares Du Nord and Lyon (patrolled by unmasked cops) the Paris Metro (still 98% compliant, however) or the SNCF TGV, and unlike at St. Pancras, no-one told us to. Even the resort (Val Thorens) is mask free. In our first two days we haven’t seen a single mask anywhere – despite them being legally required on, for instance, ski lifts. It was a very different picture for my daughter, who was in the same resort in December. Every shop, café, bar and restaurant demanded and scrutinised vaccine passports. While this level of enforcement doesn’t seem very French, apparently these hospitality venues were obliged to send all the personal data they had collected daily to the Government or face the threat of massive fines.
Given the field day the world’s petty bureaucrats, busybodies and bourgeois bullies have had with Covid, it feels like something of a victory to come to France and see things change so fast for the better. We know the French are different, and their enthusiasm for Covid-related coercion was a disturbing thing to see, but I have a feeling that the French people decide what to do in their own time. When they have decided they’ve had enough, the Government doesn’t really have a say in it. We Brits could surely learn from that.
Chris Bullick is CEO of the Pull Agency.
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That’s all well and good but getting into the damn country would be a start
Looking at their map of green and orange countries – non-vaxxed can’t enter from orange – Europe is a sea of green except the UK. Clearly political and unexplained of course. A little post Brexit niggle from Macron?
I won’t be going anytime soon sadly as it’s a lovely country just with arseholes leading them.
Plus ca change.
This is the lie that we all need to confront sooner or later if we don’t want this illiberalism to persist.
It’s not a lovely country with arseholes leading them. It’s a country of arseholes. Every country that has allowed the horrid discrimination, the rampant conformity to ridiculous rules, the suffocating peer pressure to take a risky drug – so basically pretty much every country – is a country of arseholes.
Every individual needs to take stock of themselves and stop blaming their leaders who can only get away with what we allow them to.
I understand this anger and frustration. But I’m not going there.
I don’t believe in countries of arseholes. I don’t believe in tainting every person in a country with the same brush. That excuses the cowardly and ignores those who resist.
The French, English, Germans, Italians, Australians, Canadians – whoever we are anywhere who resist – are not people without a country. We’re people who have had our country taken over, with the aid of too many collaborators.
I agree that “every individual needs to take stock of themselves”. I don’t believe that what has happened in your country is your fault. You are doing what you can at the moment and will do more when the moment changes – like the vast majority of those of us here.
‘That excuses the cowardly and ignores those who resist.’
Those that resist – one is hard pushed to find them.
‘Doing what you can’ clearly is compliance, worse joyful compliance. Do more when the moment changes? More compliance.
I feel your anger, my friend. But as an American, I’m kind of in a glass house, with a bag of stones. As it happens, my State (South Carolina) has no Covid restrictions of any kind and has not since May of 2020. But elections happen on a schedule. I think we will see a big change here this November, and another in 2024. But in the meantime, we have the government that we have, and if the legislators are ping-headed, clueless, and so blinded by partisanship that they refuse to look at reality… it is hard to know what to do. The article describes the French, whom I generally love, quietly ignoring the silly rules. I honor them for it, and I can’t wait to get back to France.
“my State (South Carolina) has no Covid restrictions of any kind and has not since May of 2020”
My state is Western Australia. You cannot begin to imagine the depths of my envy.
On a serious note, how have you managed to stay out off the MSM radar with no restrictions? When it comes to US covid resistance, most of what we get over here is De Santis and occasionally Noem.
You have the government you have because a majority voted them in.
Good..
I am sickened by reading these articles by useful cucks who tut and sigh as they head off to spend their Eurofrancs during their Bridget Jones style minibreaks. They’re not sticking it to L’Homme, they’re capitulating to him.
And brave cucks who won’t wear a mask, but are triple jabbed with the Covid poison.
You are not alone. Notice the complete absence of surveys showing just how many fewer people are travelling full stop. No one wants to wear a mask on a nine hour flight to anywhere.
““Tell me it’s a legal requirement,” I said, as all the other unmasked passengers heading elsewhere rushed past. “It’s a Eurostar requirement,” they repeated. “But not a legal requirement,” I stated. “So I shan‘t be wearing one,” and walked on unmolested.”
If Eurostar has made it a ‘condition of carriage’ is that not a ‘legal requirement’?
“The French border official scanned my passport” – how? With their eyes, or by passing it through a machine?
On what basis did you go to France? You say: “that much agonised over third jab was a waste of time.” – but you don’t say whether you have been jabbed three times or not. So, have you been jabbed 3 times? And, if so, why?
I thought France was off limits to ‘the unvaccinated’ and those who didn’t have an ‘essential reason’to travel there. You say nothing about other paperwork required, eg. proof of vaccination… were you carrying proof of vaccination with you? If so, in what form?
““I’m sorry, I don’t have a mask,” he shamefully confessed.” – funny, you’d think that people travelling to France would have some idea face masks might be needed at some stage.
“our trains” = “blatant lie” – whose trains are they, then, if not Eurostar’s?
Why are you asking all these detailed questions? Do you want to travel to France soon?
Is it unreasonable to ask those questions? If so, why? I like to know the facts. I don’t just accept ‘stories’. I thought this was a site for sceptics?
I smell a rat when people dodge questions and details.
I don’t smell a rat when you don’t answer a question or give details. I think you’re perfectly within your rights!
Bit of a co-incidence when the passenger behind him who was “with his girlfriend” (how do we know she was his girlfriend?) was ‘sent off to the shops’ and managed to get a mask which was ‘the last one’.
How does the author know this, as he has already “walked on unmolested”?
We’ll give the author a chance to fill us in with the details. And why wouldn’t they? They’ve gone to the trouble of writing he story of their trip in the first place?
“I have a feeling that the French people decide what to do in their own time.” – anyone remember the article(s) about the French Police checking for Vaccine Passports inside and outside cafes in France? French people (in France) not being allowed to go to the cinema without ‘proof of vaccination’?
Perhaps he means that the French decide not to go to cafes and cinemas?
I may be wrong, but I can’t imagine someone agonising (or referring to) a third jab that was not undergone.
Um, it’s a sceptic website, when you smell a rat you need to ask, in all circumstances.
This article has many details skipped and leaves many questions.
I’m with you on this. The author appears to be looking for quudos for his anti-masking position but at the same time it would appear he’s had 3 vaccines. It is people who’ve fallen for the vaccine 3 card trick who have sold so much down the river. Compliance is collaboration. There’s really no way around it, it’s a betrayal.
I agree and there is an awful lot who have sold themselves out to the vaccine trick just so they can go on holiday such as to France skiing. I wonder how they will live with themselves if they ever realise the consequences of what they are now injected with and especially what they have allowed to be done to their children for this skiing trip.
I feel I must stick my tenpennorth in here. I am unjabbed and live in Thailand. After my trip to the UK last year I got back here and had to go into quarantine – which i was prepared for.
Earlier this year I spoke to a Brit also unjabbed who did the quarantine and told me he was coming back later this as he now had ‘certificate and (I think) QR code on his phone for the jabs. He also said that he was on the UK database and had not had any jabs. Cost him 350 quid and now can go wherever he likes.
Now I am not saying the chap who travelled to France had a ‘fake’ certificate but they are in abundance.
I also think this is mostly a piece of fiction that raises more questions than it answers. All accounts should be questioned, even, and especially, when they’re professing to be from “our lot.”
I wish I’d had the forethought to write a DS page about a skiing holiday that I hadn’t been on. I can almost taste those apres-ski drinks as I type.
I could also have managed a (linked) plug to my business.
That’s what we’ve been reduced to – sporadic pangs of joy when the little tyrants and sadistic bureaucrats in our society temporarily lose their enthusiasm for bossing us around.
France not open to unvaxxed so they can jog on.
I am unvaxxed and made it into France from Manchester easy jet. Though I do have joint nationality. On day I arrived French border police were only checking passports. No other forms or Vax certs etc.
Ah yes, I guess I was thinking about foreigners with no residence rights
“Unvaccinated travellers are still required to present a negative test result to enter France”
So… did oblong have proof of a negative test result? It says nothing about whether you have a French Passport / right of residency in France.
Perhaps the border ‘police’ were only checking Passports – but do you know that beforehand?
https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/coming-to-france-your-covid-19-questions-answered/
There must be a way though. One of my daughters friends dads is skiing there, and he’s as anti vax as I am. I must ask him how he wangled it.
Vaxxed or recovered
Or provide proof of a negative result from a test if you come from a ‘green country’.
The UK is marked as an ‘orange’ country and to enter France you need a ‘compelling reason’ (plus negative test result).
Perhaps there are sloppy checks at the border, or none at all. You don’t know until you get there. Are you going to take the risk? Or maybe checking your Vaxx Pass/negative result is done before departure from the UK to France?
He could be telling you fibs?
No way is he fibbing about not wanting the vax. And he is defo in France. I’ll ask him…probably snuck in via another country. Fly to Milan or something, then drive over.
I think the majority of Brits did show that they had had enough, maybe not as hysterically as the French but it has ended here a lot sooner
It hasn’t ‘ended here’ by a long chalk.
Merely an intermission before the next ’emergency’.
Food shortages? Housing market collapse? Fuel rationing?
Take your pick…
How about just sticking with ‘Covid’ for now? Looks like there’s still plenty of tread on the tyres.
Funny, my sister lives in Paris and visited me here in the UK end of Jan when our Xmas plans got cancelled, and our new Insect Overlords finally decreed that travel back and forth was permitted.
We spent a week going in and out of restaurants, pubs, shops, leisure, family visits, etc … all without having to wear a f-ing useless mask, show an ethically bankrupt vaxx pass or panic everytime you’ve left the house without your phone or a “reasonable excuse” pass.
My sister was in mild shock for a lot of it.
When seeing her off at St. Pancras, she said to me: “You know what David, England has been like a breath of fresh air.”
I didn’t quite know what to say to that …. still don’t
Strangest thing happened to me. About two years ago I lost my mobile phone.
Imagine my surprise when it turned up yesterday, in the pocket of my favourite jeans. Fully charged as well……
That’s weird!
mines staying lost!
You haven’t worn your favourite jeans in two years? Or you just never wondered what that lump was in the pocket?
I may just be jealous that you have favourite clothes, since I’m largely indifferent to mine and only don them for reasons of public decency (and assorted body-image problems).
The French need a second Revolution.
They had the “Great Revolution” in 1789; another in 1830; another in 1848; the Paris Commune in 1871 and a fair crack in 1968. They’re about due.
Fresh air? But there are still hordes who believe that everywhere you go, the air is toxic with all manner of virus variants waiting to get us.
True but HaylingDave’s sister obviously found England was less oppressive than France at the time.
Paul.
I am disappointed in you! You must know these little Chinese beasties only get you when you stand up in a pub. Sitting down they cannot touch you.
Couldn’t have been London air, then?
Dissapointed in the headline writer, this is the years most suitable story for the compulsory Double entendre required when the French are revolting
‘We Brits could surely learn from that.’
Even during the second mask mandate I’d say no more than 60% were adhering to wearing a muzzle. Especially around the Newcastle area whereas most of the French are still shitting themselves.
I’m not surprised about Newcastle.
Most of the Geordie lasses I met during my yoof didn’t wear knickers.
Saves time, not to mention more left to spend on drinks.
Different in the Home Counties where compliance immediately went back to almost 100%.
Compare and contrast:
“whereas most of the French are still shitting themselves.”
“I have a feeling that the French people decide what to do in their own time. When they have decided they’ve had enough, the Government doesn’t really have a say in it. We Brits could surely learn from that.”
What has taken them so long?
The biotyranny will continue until people like you, Chris, stop rewarding it with your custom.
You’re not the hero that you imagine yourself to be.
Chris is the CEO of The Pull Agency.
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Is it true the Canaries have dropped all the Covid theatre?
If so they’re going to see my spending.
I heard that but AFAIK you still need to be vaxxed to enter Spain incl Canaries
We have been to Lanzarote in October. Only test and health registration was required. Spain was relatively relaxed with the rules all the time during scamdemic.
There is one level of stupidity for those who rushed out to get two doses of a barely tested novel gene therapy so they could go abroad on holiday last summer, but there is an entirely new level of stupidity created specifically for those who got a third dose knowing what we now know.
Just got back to France from Lanzarote over the weekend.
First trip to a LeClerc supermarket since end of masks. Rather surprised to find 75% or so going around with open faces.
From comments on here it seems people need to read the official French border controls
https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/covid-19-international-travel
“Get ready for Covid vaccines every SIX months
“Dr Harries said: ‘The pandemic is not over so for the next 18 months, two years or so I think it will be a settling down period.”
Well, there ya go – only another 2 years!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10660967/Health-chief-hints-relevant-groups-continue-Covid-boosters-six-months.html
Funny how she hasn’t read the reports in medical journals which say that these repeated boosters are damaging the natural immune system and they have a negative effect therefore they should cease to be given and she is a Doctor oh dear
Wait until this is approved……..
-the European Council has amended resolution 2361 and no longer objects to compulsory vaccination.
-As of July 1 2022 the EU has announced the legislation for the mandatory EU COVID 19 Certificates that deprive you of all freedoms if you do not have a QR covid certificate. If there is a majority of member states sighing the legislation, compulsory vaccination will be introduced.
-at the end of 2022/2023 there will be a digital currency.
-The EU will impose a digital ID on every EU citizen. (The Dutch already have this and are already referring to the EU version on the digld.nl website)
-All ATMs will be replaced by QR code ATMs in the near future, Belgium is already installing them full swing.
-If these QR code machines are integrated, cash can no longer be withdrawn from banks and/or elsewhere.
-The EU aims to make cash completely worthless within 18 months.
-The EU resolution permanently deprices every person of their physical integrity.
The actual document can be downloaded HERE. Even though it’s a foreign language for most, the words are lucky and you can tell what they are saying well enough to know this is for real
there must be many of us that won’t go along with compulsory vaccination.
anone have any ideas what to do besides refusing to comply
Can you go to France without a recent jab?
I know Spain will allow you in if you’ve had covid within the last 6 months but not sure on France.
2nd dose within 9 months or booster is needed.
cos uk is an orange country (along with Russia) they don’t seem to accept recovery. Though if you manage to enter from a green country, say Ireland which has no restrictions, you might be ok.
be interesting to see if anyone else has used this route…..
Should have said that unvaxxed entering from green countries are allowed in with -ve test or recovered status within 6 months.
im trying to get into to use ski holiday that’s been rearranged from 2020. I won’t be going there again. i will work my way through the list of fully open countries. Montenegro up next in May….
“Can you go to France without a recent jab?”
Yes, if you go from a ‘green country’ and can provide proof of a negative result from a test.
You can also go from an ‘orange country’ (such as the UK) but need the negative test result plus a ‘compelling reason’ (and maybe the right of residency in France comes into it somewhere, that is unclear).
Listening to a British motorcyclist blogging on YouTube he apologised for his muffled speech but explained it was a requirement unbelievably for motorcyclists in France to wear a mask under their helmets.
And how would he know this?
I may be missing something but I cannot see how things are changing for the better in France. Yes, I hate masks but to me the vaccine passports are far more nefarious and it sounds as if they are being followed with a kind of zealotry. At least the masks do not discriminate.
I live in Belgium where things are better. Masks mostly gone along with vaxx passports, thank goodness , (well they say they’re in the ‘bottom drawer’ – until next Autumn – if they convince enough of the extremely compliant Belgians to take their fourth and fifth doses!). They have to let me ‘pass through’ France as a Belgian resident, although I’m sure they’d like to stop me if they could although funnily enough in February they didn’t ask for documents when leaving then UK (I obviously look too old to have dared to remain unvaccinated). However, my unvaccinated daughter is still not allowed to enter Belgium (although she was born there and spent the first 17 years of her life there) to visit me as it’s still only essential travel for the unclean. I try not to dwell on the issue too often as it makes me so angry when we see this vaccine as an utter failure when it comes to preventing infection and transmission. But when was any of this rational?
Here is an idea. Stay away from those countries that continue to mandate masks until the mandate is removed. Every country depends heavily on tourism. The industry is on its knees. Don’t think those companies (hotels, transport, restaurants) so dependant on tourism aren’t pleading with their gov’ts to stop the mask mandates. And then there are the taxes paid into governments. Without custom businesses will find it harder to pay their taxes. Fewer people, not travelling by air, train, eating out at restaurants and staying in hotels, means less income to government (taxes). Eventually, countries will be forced to wake up and make mask mandate decisions based on economics and not health.
I think they are only trying to knock out one leg of the stool – and the leg they are trying to knock out isn’t the most damaging one.
To my mind the most damaging mandate – in every respect – is the vaccination certificate. Not only are they proven not to work, the evidence of the harms they cause grows with every passing day. That is what is harming their tourism industries – particularly as people refuse to have any more and therefore are not “fully” vaccinated. They are nothing more than a control measure.
But I don’t see their removal happening any time soon.
‘When they have decided they’ve had enough, the Government doesn’t really have a say in it. We Brits could surely learn from that.’
Learn what? France: mandatory health pass, mandatory masks… STILL! UK no mandatory health passes and no longer mandatory masks. And when masks were mandatory in UK, you could say ‘mask exempt’ – in France you got fined.
Mandatory CoVid vaccination for all school children over 11 in France last year, to join the 11… yes 11… mandatory other vaccinations for children.
I quit France last year at considerable expense and inconvenience after 20 years because the place had become a nightmare.
I blow my nose at Macron and fart in his general direction!