Calais (AFP)

"We canceled our vacation and we're going home!": At the port of Calais, the lines of vehicles continued to swell on Friday evening, but without creating any major disruption, after London's decision to impose a quarantine, linked to the Covid epidemic, to anyone coming from France.

According to an AFP correspondent, around 10 p.m., the queues to board the ferries were full, overflowing slightly on the ring road leading to the first French port for passenger traffic, but without causing traffic jams on the surrounding highways.

Around 300 vehicles, many of which were caravans, motorhomes or cars with racks or bicycle racks were waiting to pass the check-in gates before boarding.

"Usually, in times of Covid, we provide 1,700 passengers a day, or a third of the traffic excluding Covid. Since this morning and the announcement of the decision, we have practically doubled this figure," said port management at AFP. It is not possible to show up for boarding without a reservation.

Paul Trower, British pensioner, was able to find his sesame: "when I got up this morning around 6:00 am, I looked at my phone and everyone was writing to me that we were going to be in quarantine, so we looked and booked a ferry, canceled our vacation and we go home to avoid that, because my wife works and I have to take care of my little girl. "

- More passengers per ferry -

Closed due to the epidemic, airline boarding lounges have reopened exceptionally. Not for sale at the counters - only internet reservations work - but to inform passengers and manage flows, a task carried out by the port staff, orange chasuble on their backs. The companies have increased the ferry capacities from 500 to 750 passengers at DFDS and from 900 to 1,200 at P&O.

The news of this quarantine imposed by London also arouses surprise: "I think it's very sudden, I think it could have been a little more gradual, by being warned more in advance", notes Tony Samson, a British engineer.

She also feeds the doubts: "Is it really worth it? Is it really going to warn us of this kind of cyclic viruses? I personally don't believe, it's just going to cause a lot of damage. Forty-two? weeks is a big attack on freedoms, isn't it? "worries Louis Katson, British manager.

"We know that the number of new cases is increasing in France, but it is increasing everywhere! I had to cancel everything to come here", abounds Igor Ivanickig, a Briton, in front of a wine and spirits store near the ferry terminal.

Near the Calais-Fréthun TGV station, the manager of another store of the same type, Olivier Versmisse, is also sorry: "This is very bad news. The English have only been back for a few months. felt that they needed and wanted to come back to the mainland for the holidays, to do lots of things they used to do. There, unfortunately, people are not coming anymore. We already have cancellations of orders ... "

bb-gb-vk-jpa / rl / cbn

© 2020 AFP