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UPDATE: The parts of France that have enforced extra local Covid restrictions

Health restrictions including curfews and lockdowns have been lifted in France, but as the country is in the grip of a fourth wave of Covid cases, many local authorities have imposed their own measures. Here is a guide to the rules in place in different parts of France.

UPDATE: The parts of France that have enforced extra local Covid restrictions
Many French holiday hotspots have imposed extra restrictions. Photo: Pascal Pochard Casablanca/AFP

National rules – there are no longer any lockdown or curfew restrictions in place in any part of France. However a health passport is required to access a number of everyday venues – find full details of how that works HERE.

On a national level, masks are required in all indoor public spaces and in places outdoors where social distancing is impossible. However, a lot of local authorities have reimposed the rule on wearing masks in outdoor areas including on the street (full details below).

Local rules

When the country reached the fourth and final stage of lockdown lifting in June, préfectures were given extra powers to impose local restrictions if necessary.

The fourth wave of Covid cases is largely concentrated along the coast – mirroring where most of the French are in the summer – and an increasing number of authorities in those areas are imposing new restrictions in a bid to keep case numbers under control.

In some places the rules concern only a single town or city, in others the entire département and in others only communes above a certain size within the département. Things are changing rapidly, so if you are planning to travel we would advise checking the rules in advance on the website of the local préfecture.

Ban on large gatherings

The island of Corsica is experiencing a large spike in case numbers and authorities in Haute-Corse – which covers the northern half of the island – have banned gatherings of more than 10 people in public after 9pm. From August 1st, private events such as weddings with more than 50 people will have to be declared in advance at the préfecture.

In Landes public gatherings of more than 20 are not allowed, and many festivals have been cancelled as the préfecture maintains its limit of 5,000 people for organised events.

Early bar closures

From August 1st, all bars, restaurants and cafés in Haute-Corse will have to close at midnight.

In the south west département of Pyrénées-Orientales and neighbouring Aude, all bars, cafés and restaurants must close at 11pm.

However, 25 restaurants have been allowed to stay open until 2am, by applying the health pass ahead of the August 9th date on which it will become required for all bars and restaurants across France.

A number of bars and restaurants in Corsica and Calvados have also been able to volunteer to test out the health pass.

Prime minister Jean Castex has suggested that more bar opening restrictions could be deployed, but the final decision is up to local authorities at present.

Outdoor drinking ban

Several areas have banned the consumption of alcohol in outdoor public spaces. This does not cover bars and restaurants but includes people gathering outdoors in public spaces for picnics.

Alpes-Maritime – consumption of alcohol in public areas is banned and playing music is not allowed (apart from at organised festivals)

Var – consumption of alcohol in public areas is banned in 16 communes.

Gironde – consumption of alcohol in public areas is banned in Bordeaux, Arcachon, Lège-Cap-Ferret, Soulac-sur-Mer, Lacanau, Hourtin, Carcans, Le Porge, La Teste-de-Buch, Andernos-les-Bains,  Vendays-Montalivet, Libourne and Saint-Emilion.

Vendée – consumption of alcohol in public areas is banned, as is playing amplified music on the beaches.

Masks

Across France, face masks – worn so they cover the nose and mouth – are required in all indoor public spaces including shops and public transport, as well as outdoor spaces where social distancing is not possible.

However, several local authorities have reintroduced mask rules for outdoor public spaces including in the street.

Nice: Masks are required in certain areas of the city, notably those popular with tourists. Mayor Christian Estrosi has also instructed that medical teams offer vaccinations to people at their place of work, and was planning to introduce a ‘vaccine confidence’ label for shop owners whose staff are inoculated. The goal, he said in a recent interview with Europe 1, is to have 80 percent of the population of Nice vaccinated by the end of August.

Bordeaux: Masks are mandatory in certain areas of the city between 12pm and 7pm daily.

Toulouse: Wearing a mask is a requirement in the centre of the city from 9am to 3am.

Lille: Pedestrian areas of the city are covered by a mask mandate.

Montpellier: Certain parts of the city still require residents and visitors to wear masks from 2pm to 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Similar rules are in place in Béziers, while masks are mandated outdoors between 6pm and 11pm in the Hérault resorts of Cap d’Agde, Palavas-les-Flots and La Grande-Motte.

Mont-de-Marsan: Face masks are required outdoors in parts of the Landes town at weekends. They are also mandatory in the seaside resort of Biscarosse throughout the week.

Dax: When the mask requirement was lifted nationally in June, Dax – along with Hossegor, Moliets-et-Maa and Léon – decided to extend its local requirement until July 6th. That mandate has since been extended.

Saint-Malo: anyone inside the city walls and on the ramparts must wear a mask outdoors between the hours of 11am and 9pm, a recent decree has stipulated.

Le Touquet: Wearing a mask outside is the rule in several streets in the Pas-de-Calais town. 

Etretat: The popular Normandy coastal town requires masks in shopping centres, certain parks, and the area around the beach.

As well as individual towns, an increasing number of préfectures are introducing rules that cover entire départements.

Pyrénées-Orientales: Throughout the south west département on the Spanish border, masks are required in all public spaces except beaches. This edict runs until August 2nd but could be extended. Local authorities have also ordered the 11pm closure of all bars and restaurants as cases soar in the area.

Vendée: The west coast département has made masks compulsory in the street in 22 municipalities including the popular resorts of Les Sables d’Olonne and L’Ile d’Yeu.

Hérault: Masks are compulsory in outdoor areas throughout the département, with only beaches, bathing areas and ‘large natural spaces’ exempt.

Meurthe-et-Moselle: the eastern French département probably has the most complicated rules so far – masks are compulsory in the street of all towns that have a population of more than 5,000 inhabitants and an incidence rate of more than 50 cases per 100,000 people. At present levels, this would cover most of the larger towns within the département.

Var: The département on the south coast has re-introduced mandatory mask-wearing in 58 towns and villages, including Toulon and Saint-Tropez. This does not apply to ‘natural spaces’ like forests and beaches, or to people who are exercising. A full list of the communes affected is available here.

Haute-Corse: in the northern half of Corsica, masks are required in outdoor areas in the towns of Bastia, Corte, Calvi, Ile-Rousse, Calenzana, Saint-Florent and the Balagne area.

Essonne – the département in the greater Paris area requires a mask at all outdoor gatherings of more than 10 people.

Bas-Rhin – masks are required throughout the département for all outdoor markets, demonstrations or large gatherings in public places.

Charente-Maritime – the outdoor mask rule has been instated in the 45 largest communes, which includes La Rochelle and the popular tourist destination of Île-de-Ré.

Gironde – outdoor masks are required in; Bordeaux city centre, Libourne, Saint-Emilion and parts of Soulac-sur-Mer and La Teste-de-Buch.

Alpes-Maritimes – masks are compulsory outdoors throughout the département, with the exception of beaches, forests and national parks.

Ariège – outdoor masks are required in 19 towns and villages until August 15th.

Aude – the préfecture has introduced a mask requirement for busy areas such as the Cité de Carcassonne, as well as outdoor markets, queues and any situation where social distancing is not possible.

Bouches-du-Rhône – masks are required in outdoor markets, funfairs, and in the areas surrounding shopping centres, places of worship, nurseries and schools.

Loire-Atlantique – masks are required in La Baule and in 15 communes of the Presqu’île de Guérande.

Nord – locals and tourists in nine coastal towns must wear a mask until August 2nd, including Dunkirk.

Pyrénées-Atlantiques – several towns along the Basque coast require masks in the street between 9am and 9pm until August 31st, including Bayonne and Biarritz.

Tarn-et-Garonne – masks are obligatory in three towns – Montauban, Moissac and Castelsarrasin – from 8am to 12am, until August 7th.

Savoie – the prefect of the Savoie département in south-eastern France announce on July 30th that outdoor mask rules would return in areas where lots of people pass. This includes the town centres in Chambéry, Albertville, and Aix-les-Bains, as well as “outdoor events of more than 10 people” such as markets and queues outside stadiums and concert venues.

Finistère – the départmeent in Brittany has reintroduced mandatory masks outdoors in 22 of its larger and more touristic communes, including Brest and Quimper. The new rules do not apply to beaches or quieter areas, and will last until August 31st.

Morbihan – also in Brittany, the Morbihan département requires masks in all towns and villages of more than 5,000 inhabitants.

Haute-Savoie – the Alpine département has equally introduced mask rules for 85 towns of more than 5,000 people, including Annecy, until August 31st.

Failure to comply with local or national mask rules can net you a €135 fine.

The situation with masks may change on a local level, so check with the local préfecture for the most recent information.

Member comments

  1. What a good cop out for the Government. It’s not our fault it’s your Prefecture who’s to blame.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Are France’s loss-making regional airports under threat?

Just a quarter of France's airports break even financially with the rest - the smaller, regional airports - heavily subsidised by the state. But can this situation continue?

Are France's loss-making regional airports under threat?

France last year welcomed 199 million airline passengers – bringing the country numbers back to almost pre-pandemic levels. 

But it was only a handful of French airports that took in the vast majority of those millions – with Paris’ Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly airports responsible for more than half of the air traffic.

France’s Cour de Comptes counted 73 mainland commercial airports in their 2023 review of the airline sector – but only 15 of those actually break even, the rest rely on subsidies.

Some of these airports are exceedingly small, like Troyes which had just 1,562 passengers in 2023. Others, like Rodez with 31,577 passengers and Castres with 36,454 got a bit more.

Map of airports in France, including both passenger and non-passenger airports (Credit: l’UNION DES AÉROPORTS FRANÇAIS & FRANCOPHONES ASSOCIÉS – UAF & FA)

Limoges was larger, with 264,426 passengers in 2023, but it still paled in comparison to the 10.8 million that passed through the Marseille airport.

The cost of small-to-medium sized airports

The former head of the Air Transport Institute, Jacques Pavaux, authored a 2019 study on public aid to airports, finding that those with less than one million passengers per year are not profitable, noting that only 15 of France’s airports get enough traffic to be profitable.

As for the others, most have been loss-making for years, unable to continue services without significant aid from the state.

“Their chronic deficit has been filled by recurring operating subsidies granted over decades of existence. Almost half of them have never had, and will never have, any chance of reaching the traffic threshold guaranteeing financial balance,” Pavaux wrote. 

The study found that state and local authorities spend around €90 million every year to help keep the small-to-medium sized airports afloat. 

Of the 73 airports listed in the Cour de Comptes report, a little over half (38) counted fewer than 700,000 passengers a year. 

The Cour de Comptes called these “the most economically fragile”, noting that they depend on aid from local authorities to balance operations and carry out the necessary investments.

On top of that, many do not have negotiation options and find themselves competing with neighbouring airports, leaving them forced to take on contracts with low-cost airlines. 

As of 2021, low-cost air traffic represented more than 90 percent of commercial traffic for airports in Dôle, Vatry, Limoges, Bergerac, Nîmes, while it constituted all of the traffic at the Carcassonne, Tours and Béziers airports.

Over-density of airports

Some areas stand out for having a particularly high volume of commercial passenger airports, like Occitanie along the Mediterranean coast in southern France, which is home to nine.

The Cour de Comptes report found that in Occitanie 71.5 percent of regional airport traffic occurred at the Toulouse airport, followed by Montpellier with 14.4 percent.

The other seven – Carcassone, Tarbes, Perpignan, Nîmes, Béziers, Rodez and Castres – combined provided the remaining 14 percent of traffic. 

Valérie Renet, the head of the Occitanie Regional Chamber of Accounts, told France 3 that it is this ‘over-density’ that leads to financial losses, as “operating deficits are covered by public subsidies, that is to say that taxpayers’ money is used to balance the operation of these airports, usually for the benefit of low-cost companies.”

Last year, the airport of Bézers, which is “totally dependent on Ryanair”, received €5.1 million in public money to reach equilibrium, which equates to about €20.69 paid out per passenger, France Bleu reported. 

As for Ryanair, the company benefits from over €30 million in public subsidies – or €16 per passenger – from regional airports in Occitanie alone.

The picture is similar in Brittany, which is home to eight airports, though over 80 percent of traffic is concentrated in Brest, which has a little over one million passengers a year (as of 2018).

The future for small-to-medium sized airports

Building new airports has already become controversial – a proposal for a new airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes near the city of Nantes was the subject of huge protests for years until in 2018 the project was officially abandoned.

But that doesn’t mean that the loss-making existing airports are under threat. 

In terms of what to do with the loss-making airports, Renet focused on the situation in Occitanie. She told France 3 that she was “not advocating for getting rid of the airports. They serve other needs specific to the region, not just commercial flights.”

For example, the Nîmes airport is a national hub for air rescue and civil protection operations, meanwhile ‘pelicandromes’ which are used to fight forest fires, are installed at the Béziers, Carcassone and Perpignan airports. 

Instead, Renet and the Cours de Comptes advocated for streamlining the management of airports to a regional, rather than local level. This would help to avoid overlapping flights – like a Pau-Paris and a Tarbes-Paris that take off around the same time.

The situation may also change in 2027, when the European Commission is due to examine public aid given to airports and whether large subsidies given to airports constitutes unfair competition.

There are also climate concerns, as France moves to invest more train transport to reduce carbon emissions. In 2021, the country passed a law banning domestic air links of less than two hours and 30 minutes when an alternative train option exists.

However, this law has so far only banned three routes: Orly-Bordeaux, Orly-Lyon, and Orly-Nantes.

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