As an unvaxxed adult traveling to France, the French system requires me to have...The UK Foreign Office "Foreign Travel Advice" for France says in the "Amber List Countries:" sectiona completed International Travel Certificate to confirm their essential reason for travel. In exceptional circumstances, the French Consulate in London may be able to assist with travel for an essential reason not listed on the International Travel CertificateSo, I'd say you have to contact the French Consulate and argue that there are "exceptional circumstances" that make your travel necessary, namely, humanitarian reasons connected with your immediate family. Worth a shot.
I think the suggestion to get your son or his partner to speak to the local Marie is actually a good place to start.
My Italian friend had the same issue in January. Her mum asked a local dignitary who wrote her an official sounding letter asking her to attend a meeting at the mayor's office. Got accross the border no bother.
My experience of local French mayor's they are very happy to bend the rules if they think what you are doing is sensible
Are you driving?
You can transit France to another EU country.
Tick that box.
Just don’t get lost on the 😉
It's their country so you'll have to put up with their rules. They grant fully vaxxed people certain privileges to make it worthwhile as they are in theory less risk.
If you had any actual experience of functionaires in France
You are right, I have experience of functionaires in France . But your suggestion to beg the mayor to let her enter is ridiculous. How much influence do you think a mayor has at border control? Seriously?
Then you obviously have no direct experience of actually living in France. Bet you had you look up "marie".
You know going through immigration is not dealing with a "functionaire". Trying to clear up a mistake in the taxe d'habitation for example. Now were are talking..
In all but the biggest metropolitan areas the maries office is usually your first point of contact with the state especially when you have any questions. Like the case in point. In the past few decades of direct experience the local maries office have time after time been exceptionally helpful in pointing one in the right direction. Espcially when it comes to dealing with the central ministries. In the small towns and communes unless one is a monolingual stuck up expat (which too many blow-ins are) the people in the marie are the best source of information and advice on how the navigate the maze. After all, they already know all about you and you circumstances. Because thats how the French state works.
In the bigger metropolitan areas it a bit more hit and miss but if you are actually settled and living there long term although the staff are usually harried you will find someone eventually who will point you in the right direction. But the key point, as I mentioned, is being fluent in French. If you cannot be arsed to learn the language then its tough luck. No matter how many French people now speak English. That in my experience has been the biggest cultural change in the last forty years. Starting about 20 years ago.
And your original point was? Apart from what sounded like a snide put down of a genuine inquiry. It did not sound very helpful to the OP to me.
I think the suggestion to get your son or his partner to speak to the local Marie is actually a good place to start.
My Italian friend had the same issue in January. Her mum asked a local dignitary who wrote her an official sounding letter asking her to attend a meeting at the mayor's office. Got accross the border no bother.
My experience of local French mayor's they are very happy to bend the rules if they think what you are doing is sensible
I cannot speak too highly of the people in the marie. Their full time job is dealing with the central government, both department and national, on a day to day basis so they spend most of their time trying to do what is best for their people, the people living in the commune, town or city, in the never ending battle against the central bureaucracy. If there is a piece of paper or a rule that will help you get something done then the people in the marie are people who will know about it and if you go about it in the right way, will help you get that piece of paper.
The big difference between playing French bureaucracy and playing Italian bureaucracy is that playing French bureaucracy is all having all the right pieces of paper signed by the right people but Italian bureaucracy is all about knowing which rules can be safely ignored (most of them) and exactly which papers you actually do need to make things happen. Only a few. A very different kind of game.
But to those whose only experience is dealing with jobs-worth British local government the French and Italian systems are quite startling in how different they are. Both are games to be played, and won, or lost if you dont go with the flow. In France the enemy is Paris. In Italy its the "system". And the person on the other side of the desk can be your best ally in winning the game. If you play the game as the locals do.
