Flew CDG-TPE BR88 today, US passport.

As an aside there are a (relative) ton of Taiwanese people in Paris right now. Maybe they were always there but it’s super obvious because they are using LINE or pull out their passport for tax refund. Barely see any mainlanders; there are Mandarin-speaking people in the shops who do private shopping over livestream then the goods are shipped to China tax free.

At checkin weirdly they asked if I had a visa, US should be visa free 90 days but I had paperwork anyway so no problem. Flight was uneventful, masks required but can take them off for eating. Amusingly you can request a “seafood” special menu in Y which is the first time I’ve seen that. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t notable.

After deplaning you pick up a green slip saying that you’re not coming from a country that has swine flu. I don’t know if this is new or has been there for awhile. Anyway you walk a bit further and go through the green lane leaving the slip there.

I managed to buy a bottle of Kavalan at duty free airside too. As another aside, are you even allowed/supposed to do this? They didn’t ask for BP but maybe because I had a US passport they assumed I was departing. Who knows.

A bit further there’s a temperature screen and you are handed a box of 4 rapid tests. These are made by Abbott and look similar to the BinaxNow ones that were useful once upon a time.

There was no one at immigration early in the morning so that was straightforward too. I’m currently on the HSR towards the south of the island.

So in total, the only things that are different than pre covid are
- Mask wearing mandatory
- They give you covid tests

I think the temperature screen has been there since the SARS days (at least it was in HK). I saw a couple of the hand/forehead temperature scanners in the airport but they’re not enabled.