There are also mutterings in France about quarantine for people arriving from overseas and specifically the UK. Ok if you are emigrating but not ideal for holiday makers!
If I could quarantine myself in the house&garden (assuming there was a way of getting some shopping done) that would be fine 
I canāt see travel for holidays happening soon.
No, I canāt either which is why I think weāll be doing well to get over this year.
But the longer the house goes unvisited the more I worry about problems accumulating.
If you donāt have a local neighbour who youād trust to send keys to might it be worth a bit of googling to see if there is a service firm locally who could at least pop by and cut the grass? Youāre saving money by having fewer trips so perhaps spend it on a bit of armās length maintenance?
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I sometimes wonder if Iām living in the same world as some other people. I have friends with a holiday home in the same commune as me and when they are not here I usually pass by once every week or ten days to check that everything looks OK on the outside. If thereās heavy rain or strong winds I will usually check the inside of the building as well. I usually cut their smallish lawn before their first visit of the year. Since the beginning of the lock-down I havenāt seen it once because although itās in my commune itās over three kilometres away from my home and in the opposite direction to the nearest shops. Thatās the reality of the lock-down here, not making unnecessary journeys, sticking to the rules and regulations that have been clearly spelled out. I also have a small boat in a marina on the coast an hour and half away, it might as well be on the moon.
It makes me wonder when I see people making plans to make long journeys crossing national borders for their convenience, are the rules different for them? Once when I pointed out that visiting your holiday home was not on the list of acceptable reasons to allow entry into France, including a photo of the Attestation people continued to insist that the UK : France border is not closed. These are difficult times and hopefully we will come through them and begin to pick up the pieces of normal life but, until then, we just have to accept and live with the fact that things are not what they were.
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Which is why ptf said āNo, I canāt either which is why I think weāll be doing well to get over this year.ā I think you forget that there was a lot of confusion to start with as to what was and wasnāt possible since the border was, and still, is open for restricted travel. Plus a lot of anecdotes of people (French and non-French) having got to their second homes didnāt help.
Iām not sure whether the gardeners are still working.
Although we go over as often as we can we have not made many acquaintances in the village - my French is not up to casual conversation and we donāt have any shops in the village so what would have been a useful opportunity to chat has never really been possible - I did manage a few brief conversations when we did have a little shop/bar but not much beyond a bonjour.
Having said that, we have made a better effort at getting acquainted with the neighbours directly opposite and, as luck would have it, I managed to get an email address for them and have been exchanging a few messages to keep in touch with what is happening in the village - if it becomes obvious that there is no way weāll be over by Sept/Oct (I know it is optimistic but Iām still hoping that timescale will be possible) I might ask if they are willing for me to send them a key.
Iāll probably try to engage a gardener once restrictions are lifted a little, perhaps with the help of the neighbours - I just tried one of the internet āfind me a gardenerā things but fell foul of it wanting a French mobile number - and no way to just put in an obvious dummy as it wanted to send me a code by SMS for verification. It had already got my email address so didnāt really need a phone number as well.
Iām certainly not making definite plans - merely expressing the hope that the situation will have eased sufficiently to travel before the winter sets in - and I do not consider myself above the rules - AFAIK the border is not technically closed but you would need a valid reason to travel and I canāt think of one - visiting a 2nd home is not one of them, on either side of the channel.
I can, however, see that anyone who hoped to make a permanent move this summer must be feeling pretty despondent at present.
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Probably useful to know
Not sure why you posted the picture of the attestation?
It lists who is allowed through the āopenā border travelling from Britain into France. It is the official Attestation in English.
Yes, I know - but your comment
along with posting the attestation is puzzling me.
The border is open, for those who have a valid reason - so anyone claiming this to be the case is correct. Visiting a 2nd home, however, is not a valid reason - a point upon which we both agree yet your posting of the attestation makes me feel as though you are telling me I am wrong - Iām just not quite sure whether that is on the 1st point, the 2nd or both. Perhaps it would be better to agree the border is partially āopen (or partially closed depending on how you want to look at it)?
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Can you tone down the agression please, thanks.
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All I did was to provide you with the valid reasons. I posted the official gouv.fr Attestation in English. I thought I was helping you.
OK, glad thatās cleared up 
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Phewā¦ thank heavens the update is coming out tomorrowā¦ then weāll all know what we can and canāt doā¦ perhapsā¦ 
Ah, I wonder if David was confused by my comment āyou would need a valid reason to travel and I canāt think of oneā - that should more properly have read āyou would need a valid reason to travel and I canāt think of one that applies to meā, it wasnāt that I was unaware of (most of) the valid reasons per se.
Sorry David.
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Lets hope this ends soon and we can get back to some kind of normality for the end of summer
I was just pointing out itās not a case of thinking of a valid reason, there is a (short) list of those reasons that are permitted. The Attestation seemed the easiest way to share that list.
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