Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast a little later than usual on a Friday,

but that is because I have been doing all I can to find out the state of affairs on the French travel ban.

You will recall that a week before Christmas, the French suddenly said we're really worried about Omicron in the UK.

Look, we've just been told there is a tidal wave of the variants spreading across Britain, and therefore we have no choice but to impose a pretty complete travel ban.

You're only allowed to come in if you have a compelling

reason, such as being French. Now, in the past few days, they have slightly eased it. They've

confirmed that they are allowing British people who have their main place of residence

in another EU country to drive through. And they've also said that

people who have compelling, imperative business trips to do will be able to do so. But we are

still well short of actually axing the ban. I've got some skin in the game, not least because I love France

and I can't wait to go back there, but also because I have said I will eat my chappot, my hat,

if the ban is not lifted within the next week. 15th of January is the deadline I have set. Anyway, I've been talking to

various people, mostly, mostly people involved in the ferry business who have been particularly

hard hit by this Euro star, of course, also the chain operator between London, St. Pancras,

Lille and Paris have been badly hit.

And we're now at the stage where I think a number of operators have already got their statements written. So that as soon as the French say, okay, we are abandoning the plan.

They are ready to go and effectively they've got

their retaliation in first, which is handy for journalists. But I want to dig a bit deeper and

try to understand why you would bring this in. Now, it may well have been that for a few days there was a much, much higher evidence of

the presence of Omicron in the UK than there was in France. To bring in a ban of very short notice

that affects Christmas travel was very severe.

And you might think, oh, crikey, who did it on earth do something like that?

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