Was this really necessary France 🇫🇷?

Dinahmo

Grannynise Because life here is better. The bureaucracy is appalling but if you can cope with that it's good.

Haha, am not so sure that’s the answer😂

Grannynise Because life here is better. The bureaucracy is appalling but if you can cope with that it's good.

Grandmabatty

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

Yes - it was in the nature of a souvenir of the day for the parachutists.

Why are people so keen to criticise the French?

Nice touch the patachutists had a French priest waiting for them after their drop. I still maintain it was all staged to within a whisker.

What is a bit strange is that passport control was so public, photos being taken by the crowds and TV cameras rolling. When I pass through the controls there are always signs up saying, No photography?

C'est un bureau de douane déporté spécialement pour l'évènement alors qu'habituellement nous contrôlons sur nos postes frontaliers, à Ouistreham. Ils arrivent d'Angleterre, donc hors de l'espace Shengen. La douane a un rôle de garde-frontière et pour ces raisons-là, nous faisons ces contrôles migratoires en validant leurs passeports.

Jonathan Monti, Chef divisionnaire Direction des Douanes

I did find a statement from the Chief Customs Officier in Calvados that they have to do things this way. No bending the law. C'est la vie!

We were part of a huge operation. There were brave people from virtually every nation in the allied forces - including those from the French resistance.

Sad that this moving occasion, which is was, is being marred by our disappearing PM and certain others having pot-shots at the French.

MaizieD

Kim19

Please can we just have some peace and gratitude today?

I think that the OP is working on the lines that the French ought to be grateful to the British for liberating them (singlehandedly of course) and demanding passports is just motivated by spite at the UK having left the evil EU and the French never liked us anyway...

I thought it was an amusing episode and it's a ridiculous thing to be indignant about.

Did we the British really do it on our own, oh dear, and I was taught, and knew from My Dad that it was brave men from different Nations who died on the French beaches 80 years ago today.
Sniping at people from this country on this day, when many families lost loved ones.
Really couldn't help yourself, could you.

,

France has a problem with terrorists, as we all do sometimes, but I very much doubt any would have been parachuting in with the paratroopers on Wednesday.

I hope this officer kept his passport dry when he swam across the Channel on Wednesday!

Urmstongran

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.

Well no sand actually, it was a field inland (we drove past the day before).

16:50grandtanteJE65

I would have thought France would have plenty of would be terrorists in situ already with open borders and such.

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!

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.

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

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 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?

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

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.

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

A bit of GN trivia.

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.

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!)

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).

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!

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