Scores of British holidaymakers still travelling to France despite quarantine restrictions

Scores of British holidaymakers travelled to France on Saturday despite a Government warning they must self-isolate on their return.

New restrictions announced this week meant arrivals from across the Channel are required to quarantine for two weeks along with travellers from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba.

Ministers set a deadline for people to return to the UK by 4am on Saturday in order for people to avoid self-isolating, sparking a frantic dash for Britons enjoying holidays on the continent.  Among them was Jude Swan who boarded an overnight ferry from the Hook of Holland to Harwich, Essex, on Friday after cutting short a family holiday in Amsterdam.

The 18-year-old, from Ashford, Kent, said he needed to return to Britain so he could travel on another holiday with friends to Greece to celebrate their A-level results.

He reached the UK less than an hour before the 4am shut off leaving behind his mother and older brother in the Dutch capital.

He told The Telegraph: "We should have been warned in better time because my mum is a carer for my disabled uncle and we as a family look after him. The Government only gave us a day to get back."

But as thousands scrambled back to Britain on Saturday, many set out on journeys to France seemingly braving the risk of infection.

Natalie Jackson, a 32-year-old sales advisor from Bedford, alighted from a Eurostar train at Paris’s Gare du Nord, joining a trickle of defiant masked holidaymakers dragging suitcases or carrying backpacks through the bustling but dilapidated station.

"My family live in Normandy and I haven’t seen them since January,” Ms Jackson said. “With everything that’s happened since then, there was no way I was going to cancel this trip. I live alone and it’s been pretty difficult.”

Paris is now on the French government’s high-risk “red” list, but Normandy is classified as a low-risk area, with the ‘R’ number below 1.

The number, which indicates how many people an infected person will transmit the virus to, is 1.5 in Paris and at least 1.8 in Marseille.

“I don’t think I’ll be at risk in Normandy,” Ms Jackson said. “I”ll work from home when I get back. My bosses are very understanding, but it’s a bit annoying.”

Another traveller, Graham, 37, a human resources manager from London, who declined to give his surname, challenged the wisdom of the new two-week quarantine imposed on travellers arriving from France.

“There aren’t that many more infections in France, so I wonder why the government has been prepared to cause chaos for holidaymakers. A lot of people have rushed back to the UK or cancelled holidays.

"I’ll take all normal precautions, but I’m going to a rural part of central France where there are hardly any cases.

Leah and Molly Jones, sisters from London, said they were joining their parents on holiday in eastern France. Leah, 23, said: “I’ve just graduated and haven’t got a job yet so quarantining when I get back won’t be a problem.”

Molly, 20, is still at university. “My campus reopens in September so I’ll have time to quarantine.” The sisters said they were confident that the French authorities were taking precautions to protect people.

On Saturday, Paris extended the outdoor public areas where face-masks must be worn and Bordeaux made them compulsory in its two busiest shopping streets. Le Touquet, on the Channel, joined a fast-growing list of French resorts to make masks mandatory on the beach, except when lying down or going into the sea.

Face-masks must also be worn in all indoor public spaces in France, except for restaurants and cafés, where they are compulsory for waiters. In Paris, people gathering in groups of more than 10 people must maintain social distancing and wear masks, although the new rule is difficult to enforce.

Stéphane Gayet, an infectious diseases specialist at Strasbourg’s largest hospital, said quarantine would not stem infections. “The principle of the two-week quarantine is to allow time for symptoms to develop in order to detect infections, but we know that a large proportion of people show no symptoms. After two weeks, an infected person is still contagious.”

France will impose a “reciprocal” quarantine on travellers from the UK, expected to be announced Monday, government sources said.

Laurent Duc, head of the UMIH hoteliers’ union, said quarantine would cause “enormous economic damage because Brits won’t come to France.”

Britons usually make up about 10 per cent of foreign visitors to France and tourism accounts for more than 7 per cent of the country’s GDP. “The British are our biggest customers,” Mr Duc said.

Behind the scenes, French officials say there is growing impatience with what Paris sees as “unhelpful” rhetoric from the UK government.

“Boris Johnson seems to want to divert blame to foreigners for Britain suffering Europe’s highest number of deaths and its deepest recession,” a French government source said.

France has reported more than 2,500 new cases on each of the past three days - levels not seen since May when the country emerged from lockdown.