If you are a U.S. Citizen and are planning a trip to France, then you’ve probably heard that you need a French Health Pass or Pass Sanitaire. Technically, you can still enter the country without the pass, but if you plan on going to restaurants and bars, you will need a French Health Pass. If you’ve been following me on my Instagram stories, then you would know that I’m currently in the south of France traveling between Nic and Monaco. This was a super spontaneous trip so I didn’t have much time to research, but from what I’ve read so far, this French Health Pass is a pain to get.

How Realistic is it To Get The French Health Pass Before My Trip?

I’ve been trying to read up on the French Health Pass as much as possible from blog posts like The Points Guy and Paris by Mouth before my trip. From what I’ve gathered, getting the French Health Pass before your trip is almost next to impossible. I had a friend that went to Paris before I did and he applied on September 7th and still hadn’t gotten it when I asked him on September 20th. He was also already in Paris by then so he opted to go to a Parisian pharmacy instead to switch his CDC card for the French Health Pass. I’ll write more on that later once I get to Paris myself.

Applying for the French Health Pass

No matter what, you should at least try to apply and see if you get it. The website said that they are prioritizing people that are arriving within three days or who are already in France. So, I thought if I applied three days before my flight, my application would hopefully be a priority but I was wrong. I applied on September 21st, left for France on the 24th, and it is now October 1st. I did send them a message on September 26th saying that I was in France already but still got nothing.

Usually, I wouldn’t wait so long to apply. I actually started the application on September 5th but what held me back was my flight information. At that point, I hadn’t bought my ticket yet (as mentioned before… it was a super spontaneous trip lol) so I couldn’t fill in the information. But if you already have your flight booked well in advance, I would suggest you apply as soon as possible. Hopefully, you’ll be the lucky unicorn that gets their pass on time.

I Didn’t Get The French Health Pass In Time So Now What?

As a person writing this blog post sitting in my hotel room in Monaco right now, I would say to not waste your time and energy worrying about getting the French Health Pass before your trip. When I heard that my friend still didn’t get his pass for three weeks, I decided that I was going to just get a COVID test done in France.

Although getting the French Health Pass is the preferred option, the second option is where you can just take a COVID (rapid antigen or PCR) test every 72 hours. I think this option is a bit much but I have no choice at this point. I understand if you want me to take at least one test once I get to France, but having to take one every 72 hours is really excessive in my opinion. At that point, if I caught COVID by the third or fourth test, I’m going to assume that I caught it in France. Also, these tests cost money! If it was free, of course, I wouldn’t mind going to take the test.

Going to a French Pharmacy to Get your COVID Test (Rapid Antigen or PCR) in France

Let me first off by saying, if you are starting off in the city of Paris, you will probably have an easier time getting a French Health Pass than anywhere else in France. I say this because apparently, some pharmacies in Paris will convert your CDC card to a French Health Pass automatically. No covid testing at all. Since I decided to visit the south of France, I did the obligatory COVID test that gives me a temporary QR code good for 72 hours.

Since I’m here for 7 days, I didn’t want to take three COVID tests so I decided that I would wait a day after I landed to go get it done. Also, it was a Sunday so all the pharmacies were closed anyways. I’ll write a more detailed post about my testing experience later but overall, it was a super-fast process. I walked into a pharmacy, paid for my rapid antigen test with a credit card, and got my results in my email within 30 minutes. Now I can proudly go into any restaurant or bar without being worried that they are going to reject me.

Do I Really Need the French Health Pass?

I’ll update this section more as the days go by, but for my first few days in Nice, if you are buying things to go like at a patisserie or at the supermarket, no one will ask you for your health pass. The one time that I did sit down and eat at Chez Pipo in old town Nice, they did ask me for my health pass and I pulled it up on my phone. They scanned my QR code and all was good with the world.

I didn’t try to see if I could get away with CDC card because, to be honest, I would have been pissed if I paid for the antigen test and NO ONE asked me for my QR code. I’ll document my experience as I go along so at least you have some data points on where you might need the actual French Health Pass or QR code.