“You know what I'm going to ask you about now,” says the waitress in the Parisian restaurant “Le Chaumontois” and smiles expectantly.

Then she pulls out her electronic reader and is ready to scan.

In France, this welcoming ritual has been the new normal since the beginning of this week.

Without a health pass, access to cafes and restaurants in the country is prohibited - even in inner courtyards and on outdoor terraces.

Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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Michaela Seiser

Business correspondent for Austria and Hungary based in Vienna.

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Niklas Záboji

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From now on, only those who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, have recovered from a COVID disease or have tested negative for the virus within the past 72 hours will be allowed to drink and eat on site.

Only school and company canteens are excluded from the regulation as catering facilities.

It has also been mandatory to present the health passport for long-distance transport since Monday.

Much of what the federal and state governments are planning to do in Germany has long been implemented in France. The pressure on unvaccinated people has increased noticeably in public spaces. The 3G rule has been in effect for all leisure and cultural facilities such as museums, sports facilities and theaters since mid-July. You can stay overnight in the hotel without proof - but you cannot eat, play sports or visit other public lounges. Corona tests in Germany are still free of charge for French people, but this should end in autumn.

Employees in clinics, nursing homes and retirement homes as well as fire fighters and paramedics only have until autumn to get vaccinated.

If they don't, they face suspension from duty.

In addition, the 3G rule will also be mandatory for children aged twelve and over from the end of September.

Recently, significantly more French people have been vaccinated again, although the rate of fully immunized is still lower than in neighboring countries at around 51 percent.

"This is bad for business"

Although hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the measures in the past few weeks, according to surveys, a majority of the French are behind both the health passport and the compulsory vaccination for certain occupational groups.

But difficulties in everyday life cannot be denied.

Large department stores are desperately looking for security personnel.

Restaurateurs fear that the health pass will drive away customers.

“It's bad for business,” says the owner of an Asian bistro on Avenue Jean Jaurès in Paris.

The midday business is already hectic anyway, scanning every customer now ties up staff and costs valuable time.

Technically, not everything went smoothly at the beginning of the week.

In addition, some customers turned back when he asked them to show their passport, says the man.

Restaurateurs who do not ask their guests for their health passport face hefty fines in France.

This is also why it is checked carefully.

For German guests, it is recommended to bring the digital vaccination certificate or to install the “CovPass” app;

With a yellow vaccination certificate, on the other hand, you won't get very far.

The same applies to traveling.

The 3G rule does not yet apply to local transport and regional trains, but it does apply to long-haul routes by plane, bus and train.

Here, too, checking the health passport is time-consuming - and not always conflict-free.

France's Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari had announced “massive checks” this week on a quarter of the long-distance trains, in which 400,000 passengers a day.

The queues were correspondingly long this week at hubs such as the Paris Ostbahnhof.