Passe Sanitaire (with Bonus Anxiety!) - Saturday, 18 September

For this afternoon’s excitement-tinged-with-anxiety: obtaining my Passe Sanitaire (or a temporary one anyway).

So, to get into a resto, store, theater, concert hall, movie house, sport venue, shopping center, zoo, gym, monument (like the Eiffel Tower), etc. in Paris you need to show your “Passe Sanitaire” (health pass).  It’s given to you when you’ve been vaccinated (or, to a limited degree, when you test negative for the virus).  If you’re traveling to France you can fill out an online form and upload a copy of your vaccination card, and they’ll convert the data into a Passe Sanitaire.  You can then print out your pass or download the associated QR Code to your phone to display on entry to pretty much any establishment.  https://www.demarches-simplifiees.fr/commencer/passe-sanitaire-etrangers?locale=en

Another alternative is to go to one of the testing centers they have all over the place and get an antigen test.  Results are ready in 20 minutes.  They give you a QR Code that’s good for 72 hours.  It costs 25 euro for foreigners.  How hard could that be?!?

I submitted the online form for my Passe on September 2, and they say it will take about 16 days to receive it (via email), but mine hasn’t come yet.  So far I’ve been able to get onto the terraces of cafés and restos by showing my U.S. vaccination card, but to be safe I decided to get an antigen test.

So today I trudged down to the Pharmacie du Marais a couple blocks from my apartment to get it.  No worries, right?  I just entered, told them what I wanted, showed them my passport so I didn’t have to spell out my name, and paid my 25 euro.  They gave me a receipt to take to the testing technician - just go out the door, take a right, and enter a courtyard where the technician has an office, they said.

This is where it stopped being easy peasy!  

Unfortunately, this courtyard was one of the old ones, paved with a variety of boulders, some relatively flat and some really rounded (inviting my ankle to twist), with big gaps in between (inviting me to trip).  And the technician’s office was maybe 100 feet down the courtyard.  Nothing to do but to pluck up my courage and start shambling down the courtyard, looking for the flattest stones to step on like a little old lady (c’est moi!).  A snail could have beat me.  I made it in and back out without incident (other than some slightly frayed nerves).  

Happily, there were several cafés and bars right next to the pharmacie.  And I had to wait 20 minutes for my results.  So I figured I deserved an Affligem!

With any luck, before 72 hours expire I’ll have my official long-term Passe Sanitaire.  If not, I just might have to find a different testing center!