Brit travellers are to be banned from France in the wake of an alarming spike in Omicron coronavirus cases in the UK.
From Saturday morning, all travel between France and the UK is to be prohibited except in the case of "compelling reasons", which do not include travel for tourism and business.
French nationals and their spouses will be exempt from the new rules, Sky News reports.
In a statement the French government said: "In the UK government's own words, the UK is facing a "tidal wave" of the Omicron variant in the coming days.
"In response to the extremely rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the UK, the government is reinstating compelling reasons for travel to and from the UK, and strengthening the requirement for testing on departure and arrival."
Travellers arriving from the UK in the meantime will have to isolate for seven days as part of new Christmas travel rules.
French Government spokesman Gabriel Attal confirmed Brits will also need to show a negative Covid test taken within 24 hours.
Brits will be allowed to leave their seven-day isolation period after 48 hours if they test negative.
France's latest travel rules have been announced after England ditched its travel 'red list', meaning people from countries where Omicron was detected can once again come to the UK.
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It comes after the UK recorded its biggest ever single-day rise in Covid cases on Wednesday, with more than 78,000 infections declared.
England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, warned of worse to come as the variant continues to spread at an "absolutely phenomenal pace" across the country.
He said "big numbers" will be treated in hospital in the coming weeks as case records "will be broken a lot over the next few weeks as the rates continue to go up".
"I'm afraid there will be an increasing number of Omicron patients going into the NHS, going into hospital, going into intensive care," Prof Whitty said.
"The exact ratios we don't yet know, but there will be substantial numbers and that will begin to become apparent, in my view, fairly soon after Christmas."
He also went on to suggest people limit their interactions with others in the run-up to Christmas, echoing comments made by Boris Johnson in which he told people to "think carefully" before attending social events.
