(With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

It used to be so easy; you searched for a deal on a flight, booked accommodations, dug out your passport and any foreign currency leftover from your last European adventure, went to the airport and subjected yourself to screenings and pat-downs, got on the plane and woke up in a new country to begin a new European adventure.

Ahhhh, the good old days.

These days, travel is much more complicated.

Here is just a sampling of what we needed to do before boarding the plane:

1. Check that our destination country (in this case, France) and the country where we would change planes were even open to Americans.
2. Check on current quarantine and COVID test requirements, at our transfer destination countries, and to return to the US.
3. Order authorized ”at home” COVID tests, to be administered no more than 72 hours before attempting to re-enter the US.
4. Verify and keep checking the ever-changing mask guidelines at airports, in airplanes and in France.
5. Source and purchase plenty of KN95 masks, lots of hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial wipes.
6. Get a rapid COVID test before departure JUST IN CASE there is a sudden change in #2 above.
7. Complete a COVID screening form for the airline, and another contact tracing form, just in case we are exposed while in France. Also, download the French government’s mobile app for contact tracing.

Are you exhausted yet?

Yet there is one final hoop to jump through: The French version of our CDC vaccination card, or Passe Sanitaire. The French government requires these Passes be presented for entry to all restaurants, museums, historical sites, shopping malls, theaters, etc. And the only for Americans to get that card is to apply online.

I pray that we won’t run into any problems with just our CDC vaccine cards, because we applied for our Passes Sanitaires THREE WEEKS AGO and despite every tip and hack available online, our applications remain somewhere in limbo.

Wish us Bonne Chance!