Was this really necessary France 🇫🇷?

Do you mean on this thread? As pretty much every post with a couple of exceptions has been in support of the French.

I still maintain that (okay, quite correct) French security could have organised this better. The optics didn’t look good. British paras all landing in a French field (they knew they were arriving!) and they set up a couple of trestle tables to process them - beggars belief! There HAD to be an alternative. I think it smacked of ‘look at us we take checking ID very seriously’.

They just looked silly.

Meanwhile, our PM left the event early to helicopter back for a TV interview. Respectful or what?
Yes, I did wonder about that. It wasn't a live interview was it?
Yesterday, evening in France Macron was interviewed on live TV at 8pm, so dedpite his earlier wonky time keeping, ⌚️ , he managed to fit everything in. He talked about the EU elections, Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. Interestingly, I am reading reports today that Macron might have used up too much air time in the interview, because during election campaigns in France, the amount of time given to a certain candidate or party is counted according to strict rules. It's the same for the Head of State.

Urmstongran

I still maintain that (okay, quite correct) French security could have organised this better. The optics didn’t look good. British paras all landing in a French field (they knew they were arriving!) and they set up a couple of trestle tables to process them - beggars belief! There HAD to be an alternative. I think it smacked of ‘look at us we take checking ID very seriously’.

They just looked silly.

I love the French, don't get me wrong, but they do like to make "tout un plat" over things. Maybe it wasn't intentional, but French news cameras showed the British paras landing, followed by French gendarmes, literally chasing up the beach to question them! Now, the French security could have been offering to help the men out of their parachutes for all we know, but it did look a bit staged.

By the way, though personally I don't do this, calling the French frogs is OK. It dates back to 17th century Paris, where the poorer people were called that by the more noble French themselves. The latter travelled to England around that time and brought the expression with them, that the English then applied to all French people. 🐸 🐸

Thank you Joseann your posts have extra gravitas because you live there (sometimes) and so have more knowledge.

Joseann

Urmstongran

I still maintain that (okay, quite correct) French security could have organised this better. The optics didn’t look good. British paras all landing in a French field (they knew they were arriving!) and they set up a couple of trestle tables to process them - beggars belief! There HAD to be an alternative. I think it smacked of ‘look at us we take checking ID very seriously’.

They just looked silly.

I love the French, don't get me wrong, but they do like to make "tout un plat" over things. Maybe it wasn't intentional, but French news cameras showed the British paras landing, followed by French gendarmes, literally chasing up the beach to question them! Now, the French security could have been offering to help the men out of their parachutes for all we know, but it did look a bit staged.

Are you sure Joseann? I saw the gendarmes patrolling, presumably for security reasons and the paratroopers then walking over to a table for a document check, though some needed guiding in the right direction.
I thought it all looked very low key and straightforward.

On my TV yes, * Mamie*. I honestly thought someone was hurt as the uniformed officers ran towards the paras on the sand.

Joseann

On my TV yes, * Mamie*. I honestly thought someone was hurt as the uniformed officers ran towards the paras on the sand.

Ah different time and place then. I thought we were talking about Sannerville which is nowhere near the beach. Those landings were on Wednesday afternoon, which I think is what the OP was talking about.

We don't know the security threat levels. Le Monde said 46.000 personnel were on security detail.

We don't know when or why the security decision was made re the paras. You don't give advance warning if there were concerns.

Should give the organisers benefit of the doubt when the day was overall an immense success. Leading figures/targets from all over the world, and grumbling about some passport checking? Storm in a teacup.

Oh, ok, my mistake. I think it was the SkyHawks Thursday I saw being pursued because the parachutes were bright red? But it did look incongruous!

The French system is very beaurocratic, some jobsworth had a task to do, I hope we would do the same here.

Joseann

Oh, ok, my mistake. I think it was the SkyHawks Thursday I saw being pursued because the parachutes were bright red? But it did look incongruous!

I thought the Sky Hawks were Canadian? In which case they might have already been in France for some time? I guess they might have been in England if the planes that dropped them were British, though we did also see Canadian air force planes. The sky has been busy overhead this week!

I have, without having read any more of the thread, asked to have my earlier post withdrawn as it may have been inaccurate (and I can’t be bothered to check this morning).

Yes, we've seen a lot of activity here this week, Mamie, coming out of the base aéronavale at Lorient.
I think I read that another DDay landing was due to have taken place in Lorient in June 1944, but it didn't go ahead. The Germans built a huge submarine base there.
(I was an au pair for a French Capitaine de vaisseau in the 1970s in Lorient. When he later got transferred to Paris, I attended his medal decoration ceremony by Giscard d'Estaing. I wish I'd paid more attention to what it was for!)

What would be interesting to know is if anyone who actually watched the footage at the time thought what happened was out of proportion? I was watching it live on TV and certainly don't recognise it from the OP's description taken from the Daily Telegraph.

A bit of GN trivia.

Who were those young people that were singing? I was in tears listening to them; it was so beautiful.

MayBee70

Who were those young people that were singing? I was in tears listening to them; it was so beautiful.

It was wonderful, wasn't it. I have done a quick search of the French papers and can't find anything apart from choirs of children. Beautiful music, especially loved the Satie and the Ode to Joy.

Françe is on its highest security alert leading up to the Olympics so it’s good practice.

I was amused by your post Joseann about Macron having a shonky watch as he’s often late in showing up.😄
Wonder what the real reason is?

Galaxy

As its one of the only threads without hashtags and promises of gold nuggets, quite possibly it was.

I came on the forum at 7.30 this morning to have a squint at what’s going on before heading off to work, but it was wall to wall black magic spellcasters and promises of riches.It seems to be a regular occurrence here.🧐

I have read that many of the British paratroopers asked for their passports to be checked so that they could have a stamp on that auspicious day on French soil and that is why it was set up. I haven't checked that though, so it should say 'allegedly'. If so, I can imagine why they felt a stamp in their passport on 6th June was important to them

Oh I do hope that story is true Grandmabatty. If so, that’d be wonderful (after all) and draw a line in the sand, pun intended.

Oreo

Maybe they thought they were illegal immigrants dropping in?
😄 I can’t see much harm in having a passport check, but yes I see your point about the MOD, they could have provided a list.

They could and probably did provide a list, but if no passport checks had been deemed necessary, someone, somewhere would have known that , and with all the trouble France has had in the past few years with terrorist attacks on civilians, can any of us, private citizens or officials, say that a terrorist might have made use of the lack of passport control to sneak into France and sabotage the D-Day celebrations?

Sounds right up a terrorist's street to me!