Eat your sandwich, nibble on a few cookies, drink a coffee ... These innocuous gestures will soon no longer be authorized in trains and certain planes.
"
The consumption of food and drink will be prohibited in [...] public transport, including long distance
," Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on December 27.
This measure, justified by the progression of the Covid-19 epidemic in France, will concern other places such as cinemas and sports arenas and will apply from Monday, January 3, 2022 for a period of three weeks.
Holidaymakers who return this weekend from their end-of-year holidays will therefore benefit from a reprieve.
Read also Paris-Lyon: we tested the difference between SNCF and Trenitalia
No more bar cars on trains, “discernment” on long journeys
You will have to make your arrangements by having lunch or dinner before boarding the train.
The TGV bar car will be closed from January 3, 2022, confirmed the Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, this Tuesday on Europe 1. And to specify that this rule will be applied with discernment: "
We will obviously be very pragmatic and exercising good judgment on the subject.
It would not be normal, for example, to forbid people to drink or a mother from giving food to her child.
"
If this ban is bearable on short journeys like Paris-Lille (one hour) or Paris - Lyon (two hours), it may pose a problem in a Paris - Nice (six hours), or even in night trains which take up to 'at twelve o'clock to reach their destination.
Enough to provoke annoyed and sarcastic reactions on Twitter ...
The SNCF, contacted by
Le Figaro
, awaits the decisions of the government before expressing itself on the subject.
Concerning international rail journeys, the vagueness also remains.
Will travelers be allowed to eat and drink again after the train crosses the border?
Here too, details should be given in the coming days.
Read also40 years of the TGV: the evolution of the bar car in pictures
In airplanes: the ban only concerns domestic flights
If you have planned to travel by plane in Europe or elsewhere in the world, rest assured: the ban on eating and drinking will only apply to domestic flights.
Airlines will therefore continue to offer catering services on international flights.
Air France told AFP "to
wait at this stage for the publication of the ministerial decree and its directives in order to see what changes to make to the organization of the service offered on board
".
The company had already suspended food and beverage services on board for air links in mainland France and to Corsica at the start of the health crisis.
It remains to be seen whether flights between the metropolis and the overseas territories, considered as domestic flights, will benefit from an exemption.
Contacted by the Overseas Channel La 1ère, the French Overseas Ministry assumes that the measure will only concern France ... And has requested clarification from the Ministry of Transport.
Case to follow.
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