TAKE THE PLUNGE

So now you are feeling more confident. You are ready to break that psychological barrier and cope – in a calm and efficient manner, of course – with the new rigmarole surrounding international travel. Let’s assume that, like about 90 per cent of adults, you are fully vaccinated. All that makes life much easier – you probably won’t have to show a negative test on arrival, and you won’t have to self-isolate on your return from an amber destination.

Make your first trip easy for yourself. The queues and delays at the airports that were an issue last weekend are unlikely to be repeated now that the school holidays are over. Even so, you might prefer to avoid flying. For my return to travel, I booked a Eurostar ticket (eurostar.com) for a short break in Paris. It felt like an easy option, in familiar territory. But I might just as easily have forked left after Calais and headed for Brussels, perhaps changing trains for onward travel to Bruges or Ghent.

In fact, city breaks generally offer an excellent way to get back into the swing of overseas travel (telegraph.co.uk/tteuropecitybreaks). You can even time them so that you avoid the anxiety of taking a test before you return home (see point 8, on Page 4).

And for anyone who is still nervous about using public transport, then the cross-Channel ferries, or the Channel Tunnel, are an obvious option. Apart from anything else, you have the independence and security of enjoying the whole journey in your own car if you opt to go through the tunnel.

And if you are nervous of exposure to people on the ferry, then you can always spend the crossing out on deck in the undoubtedly fresh air.

The Calais crossing is obviously the quickest, but the sailings into Normandy and Brittany offer a more direct route to the more scenic parts of France.