LeTouquet
 

Has anybody flown to France recently (specifically LeTouquet) now that it's off the 'all but essential international travel' list? Thinking about doing a trip there again soon but wondering if there are any issues with it and if it's even worth going? (Is there anything open that side) The airfield seems to be operating normally based off the assumption it says nothing about Covid on their website.

Thanks

More important . Is the Perard restaurant open ?

velo84

How's your French?

"à 5 minutes de la verticale"

Or get there early - bonne chance!

All restaurants and supermarkets in France are open (subject to restrictions) as are most airports. Le Touquet appears to be open but this restriction mentioned above is a bit strange. The message they display says Air to Air in French only from 11:30 UTC to 13:00 UTC but goes on to state arrive/takeoff before 11:30 after 15:00 if you need English. Of course you can land or take off any time in operating hours by banging out your verticale or décollage if you know it. However, amongst all your other paperwork, you'll need to fill in an Attestation de Déplacement International which you can find here: Attestation

You probably have to do something similar to get back into the UK?

Might be a bit of fun but don't forget your masks either.

There's a bit of useful info on flyer about this, and you don't even need elementary latin to read this particular thread:

forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=115933

Thanks for all the responses, I'll probably wait a while. I've landed there with no Tower before and it wasn't great fun (my French is somewhat lacking)

Looking forward to when life returns to normal.

The wisest decision a pilot can make. :ok:

Depends on what you call "normal" - this is a dangerous word! In particular, this noon pause at the tower is not corona-related, I see no indication that it should be temporary. So this may well be "the new normal".

Last year [AFIR] they had a whole non-radion day a week & it all worked well enough. Customs can still be available if correctly notified.
If what they're doing is to keep 'Tower' overheads down & continue operating the airfield viably, we Brits will benefit by continuing to have an early cross Channel haven.

Calais could be my preference as much less formal and so on, but usually entails a detoured route when aiming for a southern destination e.g. Chavigny.

Albert might do at a pinch, but the best place - until Douane stopped - was Abbeville, nicely on my favourite southerly route & avoids the strong seaside winds that I found more often than not at Le touquet.!

Non radio Tuesday(?) was around for a while, certainly longer than a year or so.

Not been in for years - is the landing fee still steep?

Mikehallam, another option that could work for you is along the coast to IOW then turn left to Caen. Straight on to Chauvigny, or if you have the range clear inbound at Tours.

Abbeville was also my favourite, with cheap landing fee and nice restaurant. Resented having to throw away all that height gained over the channel to go into Calais more recently.

Not been to Le Touquet since they shut the cross runway!

Will probably try Albert next time.

Be warned that - as far as I could discern from the www, without ever having been there - Albert looks like the end of civilisation - not a resto or hotel nearby. Looks like just good enough for clearing formalities and perhaps refuelling.

Jan, that wasn't my experience when I landed there last year. Efficient Customs handling, and offer to hanger my aircraft overnight, then a relatively short taxi into town, and booked into a local hotel. Several nice restaurants to choose from for my evening meal, and an interesting WW1 Museum to browse around the following morning before continuing my journey south. I would certainly have no hesitation in visiting again.

clareprops travel advice is well out of date, the current situation is;

Coronavirus (COVID-19): countries and territories exempt from advice against ‘all but essential’ international travel

The FCO updated its global advisory against ‘all but essential’ travel, exempting destinations that no longer pose an unacceptably high risk for British travellers.

This list is long but includes most EU countries other than mainland Portugal (my words).

COVID-19 travel guidance

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office currently advises British nationals against all but essential international travel. Travel to some countries and territories is currently exempted.

Travellers arriving in France from the UK, European Area, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay are no longer required to self-isolate, to demonstrate their travel is essential or to hold an international travel certificate.

Quarantine requirements

There is no quarantine requirement for arrivals from the UK, from the wider European Area (as defined

@BobD: thanks for information. I did mention that I had never been there! And yes of course, if once you take a taxi you will find accomodation, almost everywhere. Myself try to find fields with an eatery on site, most fields here in BE have them, as have many in Germany; in France this is much less common, alas.
And, out of sheer curiosity: who provided the nice welcome? The airport staff or the local aeroclub, or yet someone else?

It was the airport staff, and fire crew, who were most helpful when I first arrived at Albert Bray, running me to the offices for the customs procedure, before arranging a taxi for me into town (approx 10€). The museum in the town is really interesting, and I wished I had more time to explore it. It is many metres underground and gives a real feel of what the trenches must have been like in WW1.