KathyWood

We are flying to France next Tuesday and will spend three weeks at our second home in Provence. This is our second trip to Europe this year. We're both fully-vaccinated with booster shots. We have our pass sanitaires, which we'll get updated at a pharmacy.

But unexpectedly now we must have a negative COVID test 48 hours before our departure. From thelocal.fr I have read that "The decree states that only tests “that are able to detect protein N of Sars-Cov2” can be used – this covers all PCR tests but not all antigen tests." The Delta website (just updated today) says:As of December, 4 all fully vaccinated passengers arriving from any country outside the EU will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test result.

Test taken 48 hours before the last embarkation point

• Test type accepted: PCR test or antigen test

The 48 hour requirement is proving to be tricky. We'd have to have the results by late Tuesday afternoon; our flight leaves our home airport at 5:00 pm and then our transAtlantic flight is at 8:15 pm. So we can't test Sunday afternoon... it will have to be Monday morning.

We talked today to both CVS and Walgreens. They may be able to get results for a PCR test within 24 hours but sometimes it takes longer. Does anyone understand about the antigen test we might get at CVS or Walgreens and whether it fits the French requirement? I'd appreciate any thoughts about how best to handle this. Right now we have an appointment at a doctor's office (a friend) about an hour from our home. They normally get results in 24 hours, but rely on an outside lab. I'd sure like to have a backup. Thanks for any help! We know we will be fine once we are there.

kureiff

Some Walgreens locations offer a 30 minute antigen test that should qualify. We ran into a similar issue flying to Hawaii; no one near us offered the rapid antigen test that qualified and the 24+ hour turn around on testing made timing very difficult, then two days before we were scheduled to leave our Walgreens offered the rapid tests (they no longer offer them).

We are flying home from Paris today. We had been reading recommendations regarding when to get to the airport. I had read a few accounts here and on a France FB group recommending allowing 3.5 to 4 hours to get through the Safe Travel process, immigration control, and security. Our hotel concierge also recommended allowing 3.5 to 4 hours.

We made it from getting out of our taxi to our gate in 40 minutes. So…maybe we didn’t need to get up at 5:30 am? I was surprised by how efficient United was. And, honestly, I think it was lucky timing as the lines were starting to get longer.

I was concerned about getting our Covid testing done prior to flying back to the US. We were in Barcelona yesterday and took the high speed train back to Paris. Testing in Barcelona was between 80 to 100 euro a person. We got to the Gare Lyon at 5:30 pm and were able to get tested at the pharmacy in the train station. We had our results in 15 minutes and the tests were 22 euros.

Dee_Dee

Kathy, I'm in the same position. I leave Sunday. I spent all morning yesterday trying to find a location that could give me results quickly. No luck locally with Walgreens or CVS as I live in a rural area. I did find one at a city 2 hours drive from me using this CVS link: https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing I had to make an appointment and all the Friday time slots were already booked. I did get one for Saturday morning though.

Then, I hit pay dirt. Continuing to use Google search, I found that a local Urgent Care in my small city does antigen tests with results in 15 minutes! No one would answer the phone so I got in my car, drove there and found out they do provide immediate results! No appointment necessary and they have late hours. So, you might want to also check any Urgent Care facilities.

balthy

How do you know the antigen test is acceptable by the French authorities ie one that checks protein N? I'm going to France but will take a PCR test with results in 3 hours as I know this will be accepted but I am unsure about which antigen tests are going to be suitable.

KathyWood

I also felt the antigen tests were risky. We could not get an answer from our local CVS or Walgreens about the specific test and whether it checked for protein N. We found a non-chain pharmacy not too far away that does rapid PCR tests and we booked that... expensive, but if insurance doesn't pay I guess I'll use credit card points to pay for the tests.

Christina

I also would presume any rapid antigen test would, I don't know what kind would not, but if not, I wonder what it is testing, as that's basically what they do. This is really easy to do where I live, dozens of places do them. I can see if you are in a rural area, that may be a problem b ut if you decide to travel internationally at this time, I think you have to adjust and do all the things and the cost that requires. Or maybe not go, obviously.

For example, you could go to the city with the airport for a couple days in advance and get a test there.

The fact that CVS and Walgreens clerks don't know is pathetic, pharmacy staff should know. They should at least know the brand they are using, I don't understand that. Then you could look it up easily enough. Walgreens website says it uses BinaxNOW, that's all I know. And it does. Info is on the test's official insert. For example, the BinaxNOW insert says this --

The BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Antigen Self Test is a lateral flow immunoassay intended for the qualitative detection of nucleocapsid protein antigen from SARS-CoV-2 from individuals with or without symptoms or other epidemiological reasons to suspect COVID-19 infection


NUCLEOCAPSID PROTEIN is Protein N.