Starting my journey to the UK from an exempt country, say, Germany, I will have to travel through France by car to get to the Eurotunnel. I would not stop, leave the car, take on any passenger, etc.
I don't know the exact procedure at the Eurotunnel.
Will I have to go into self isolation for 14 days according to the new rules for France (August 14th 2020)?
Are there any viable alternative ways to get me and my car to the UK from Germany without quarantine?
Gov.uk says that if you travel from a country on the "exempt list" (and Germany is) and travel across one that is not on the list (e.g. France):
You don’t need to self-isolate if you travel through a non-exempt country and you don’t stop in the country.
If you do make a stop, you don’t need to self-isolate if:
no new people get into the vehicle
no-one in the vehicle gets out, mixes with other people, and gets in againYou do need to self-isolate if you make a stop and:
new people get into the vehicle, or
someone gets out of the vehicle, mixes with other people and gets in again
This post https://m.facebook.com/notes/british-embassy-paris/covid-19-update-transit-stops/3606924719365897/ (British embassy in Paris) says in Scenario 4:
No quarantine if you drive through France, do not get off your car and use the Eurotunnel without leaving your car.
As a side note, if you use the ferry you will have to get off your car and therefore self-isolate.
It is possible to drive through France without stopping if you take petrol in Germany. The process in Calais is that you do not interact with anyone apart from opening the window and passing the passports, so theoretically you do not need to self isolate. But, I am not a gov representative, so not sure how they interpret it. I think it is safer to do so than go to pubs in the UK. They are overcrowded and it is not fair to force reliable folk to self-isolate and at the same encourage others to mix with other people. It would be interesting to hear if it worked for you, so please update this later if you can.
