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HEALTH

What you need to know about France’s lockdown rules on sport and outdoor activities

From Saturday November 28th the rules on exercising and outdoor activities change in France. Here's a look at the new rules.

Published: 2 November 2020 16:32 CET
Updated: 28 November 2020 16:00 CET
What you need to know about France's lockdown rules on sport and outdoor activities
Runners in France must now stay within 1km of their home address. Photo: AFP

Macron made the announcement in a live speech to the nation on Tuesday evening, where he also outlined three phases for lifting lockdown moving forward.

“We have passed the peak of the second wave,” Macron said, “our efforts, your efforts, have paid off.”

 
Here's a look at how this will impact exercising, sport and other outdoor activities in France such as walking the dog.
 
Until November 28th

Up until November 28th France's rules on taking exercise were similar to those during the first lockdown, limited to one hour and 1 kilometre from the home, always in the company of a signed and dated attestation (permission form).

All sports clubs were closed.

November 28th

On this date, the government will relax some of the rules while other restrictions in place.

Three hours and 20 kilometres – Everyone will be able to go outside for a walk, exercise or play certain sports for up to three hours at the time and within a radius of 20 kilometres around their homes.

If in doubt about how far 20 kilometres is from your home, you can check out this handy little map from Le Parisien. Tap in your address and a circle appears showing how far you are allowed to distance yourself without breaking the rules.

Attestation – Everyone leaving their house must continue to, whatever their errand is, bring a signed permission form to show police in the event of a check. This rule will be in effect until December 15th, when France will lift lockdown if Covid-19 cases stay low. However the attestation will likely change, seeing as the current one specifies exercise as limited to 1 kilometre and one hour.

Individual – This will not change either. As has been the case since the second lockdown entered into effect, exercise should be done on an individual basis. That means going for a walk or a run and 'just happening' to bump into your friends does not fit within the rules. Social distanced walks with friends will not be allowed yet either. 

Activity: Up until now the permitted activities have not been listed in the attestation but this has included individual outdoor activities such as jogging, cycling and walking (with or with a dog). 

Sports – However some outdoor sports are once again permitted from Saturday. Tennis is allowed and golf clubs are permitted to reopen albeit with strict sanitary rules in place. Individual water sports such as surfing and wind surfing are allowed from Saturday.

Horse riding, fishing  and athletics are also allowed.

Family – You can however walk or run with others if they live in the same household as you.

Group sports – Remain forbidden. The exception to the rule is children, as French Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu said in the tweet below. Sport clubs for children may resume their activity as of November 28th if they are outdoors.

 

 

Driving to a forest – If you want to take your car to drive to a nicer place to work out, you likely will be able to – however this has not yet been specified. Prime Minister Jean Castex will hold a press conference on Thursday morning to provide more details on the new lockdown rules.

Dog-walking – This is covered by the exercise box and must respect the three hour, 20 kilometres-rule.

Indoor sports centres/swimming pools – Will remain closed across France. Amateur team sports will not be allowed. Professional sports continued throughout the second lockdown, though behind closed doors.
 
Fishing – Was banned with the second lockdown, but French media have reported this will likely be allowed again as of November 28th. Hunting is already allowed (for some types of hunting).
 

Parks/gardens – Unlike the first lockdown, parks and public gardens never closed this time and they will continue to stay open in the weeks ahead. 

To work – Work trips and trips to pick up children after school are not covered by the exercise box on the attestation and therefore not subject to the same rules. This was perhaps a bit more important in the period preceding November 28th seeing as few parents will have to exceed the 20 kilometres-limit to get their children after school.

9pm – France is planning to install a national nighttime curfew on December 15th, but until that date there is nothing illegal about going for a nocturnal walk, as long as you have the attestation with you.

December 15th

This is the date France plans to lift lockdown, which means no more filling out attestations to go out the door, no more rules limiting how far you are allowed to distance yourself from the home, and – crucially – no more restricting exercise to individual practices.

That means football games outside, a match of tennis or a walk will friends will be lawful again.

All this depends on the fact that Covid-19 cases remain low enough for the government to ease the lockdown.

These are the rules that will be in effect as of December 15th: 

9pm-7am – A new nighttime curfew will make it illegal to go outside for exercise purposes between 9pm and 7am.

Swimming pools and gyms – Will remain closed. 

January 20th

If numbers remain below 5,000 new Covid-19 cases per day, the limit Macron set on Tuesday evening, the government will lift the remaining rules on this date.

Gyms and pools – will reopen, if health conditions are met.

 

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TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the deal with passport stamping in France?

There are clear guidelines in place about who should have their passport stamped when they enter or leave France - but the letter of the law doesn't always seem to be applied on the ground. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:24 CEST
What's the deal with passport stamping in France?

When you pass through a French border control post, officers will check your passport and – in some cases – stamp the date of your entry or exit of the country onto one of the blank pages in the booklet.

Although the system should be clear and simple, it becomes complicated when conflicting information is given on the ground.

Here’s what the rules say, and whether it’s really a problem if your passport is incorrectly stamped.

Who should be stamped?

The purpose of the date stamps for entry and exit is to calculate how long you have been in France, and therefore whether you have overstayed your allowed time – whether that is the time allowed by a short-stay Schengen visa or the visa-free 90-day allowance that certain non-EU nationals benefit from. 

Those people who are exempt from 90-day restrictions should therefore not have their passports stamped.

EU passport – people who have an EU passport should not have it stamped, because they have the right to unlimited stays due to EU freedom of movement.

Dual nationals – people who have passports of both EU and non-EU countries should not be stamped when they are travelling on their EU passport. However, because the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’, those travelling on their non-EU passports will be stamped, unless they have other proof of residency.

READ ALSO What are the rules for dual-nationals travelling in France?

French residents – the passports of non-EU citizens who have a residency permit in France (carte de séjour) should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their permit is valid.

Visa holders – people who have a long-stay visa or a short-stay visitor visa should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their visa is valid. 

Tourists/visitors – people making short visits to France who do not have a visa should be stamped, with the stamps keeping track of their 90-day allowance. Visitors from nationalities who do not benefit from the 90-day rule (eg Indians) are also stamped.

Travel practicalities

When crossing a French border, you should present your passport along with other documents – visa or carte de séjour – if relevant. Don’t wait for border guards to ask whether you are a resident.

It should be noted that the carte de séjour is not a travel document and cannot be used to cross borders, not even internal Schengen zone borders. The only valid travel documents for entering France are a passport or national ID card. Any other forms of ID – driving licence, residency card etc – cannot be used for travel purposes.

Border problems

While the rules on stamping are simple in theory, many readers of The Local have reported having their passports incorrectly stamped at the border, and this seems to be a particular problem for non-EU nationals who are resident in France.

Travellers are also often given incorrect information by border guards – for example being told that only holders of the post-Brexit Article 50 TUE carte de séjour are exempt from stamping, that all non-EU nationals must have their passports stamped or that only being married to a French national exempts you from stamping.

None of these are correct.

It’s also sometimes the case that people whose passports should be stamped – tourists, visitors and second-home owners who don’t have a visa – do not receive the stamp. For frequent visitors this can be a problem because it looks as though they have had a long stay in France, due to their exit not being recorded.

The system of stamping itself is also a bit haphazard with stamps scattered throughout the passport book in random order, so border guards sometimes make mistakes and miss an entry or exit stamp and therefore think that people have overstayed when they haven’t.

So how much of a problem actually is it if your passport is wrongly stamped?

It’s one thing to know the rules yourself, it’s quite another to have an argument with a border guard, in French, when a long queue is building behind you. Numerous Local readers have reported feeling that they had no choice but to accept a stamp when an implacable guard insisted upon it.

But is this really a problem?

One thing is clear – if you are a resident of France then you have the right to re-enter, and your proof of residency (visa or carte de séjour) takes precedence over any passport stamps. So it’s not a question of being barred from the country – it can, however, be inconvenient as it might lead to delays at the border while your passport record is queried.

Meanwhile people who did not receive correct exit stamps can be incorrectly told that they have over-stayed and even be liable for a fine. 

Will the new EES passport control system improve this?

Theoretically, the EU’s new Entry & Exit System – which does away with the manual stamping of passports – should get rid of these problems.

However, as we have seen, theory and what actually happens on the ground are two different things.

The EES system, due to come into effect later this year, brings in two main changes – it makes passport checks more secure by adding diometric data such as fingerprints and facial scans and it does away with manual stamping of passports and replaces it with scans which automatically calculate how long people have been in France.

You can read full details of how it works HERE. 

So that should eliminate the problems of unclear stamps, stamps being read wrongly or passports not getting the stamps they need.

Residents in France – carte de séjour and visa holders – are not required to complete EES checks and should have a separate system at ports, airports and railway terminals.

However, at present it’s pretty common for border guards to give incorrect information to non-EU residents who are resident in the EU – let’s hope that they are properly briefed before EES is deployed.

Have you had problems with passports being incorrectly stamped? Please share your experiences in the comments section below

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