A few weeks ago, I landed in a French port of entry from outside Schengen at a time when they were supposedly open. No customs & no one cared. Laid back. I continued on in Schengen and had no problems. I think this was sensible, but not naming location so as not to create problems for them.
I think it is up to customs/immigration as to whether they show up or not. I flew to Le Touquet a couple of weeks ago and nobody was there either. I was flying from UK and so knew that I needed to send the Douanes an email in advance. The part that was not clear to me from any of the French official websites/NOTAMs/etc was that the prior notice periods apply from Schengen countries as well. I am planning a trip to France and Germany and could have easily missed that I need to land at a customs/immigration airfield on the Germany to France leg. I also need to have given prior notification. Many French airports no longer have customs/immigration, and those that do often have 24 hour prior notification required. Le Touquet is one of the exceptions requiring only 2 hours.
WhiskeyPapa wrote:
A few weeks ago, I landed in a French port of entry from outside Schengen at a time when they were supposedly open. No customs & no one cared. Laid back. I continued on in Schengen and had no problems. I think this was sensible, but not naming location so as not to create problems for them.
As long as you complied with AIP and NOTAM, there is nothing wrong with what you did.
It was the same thing at Carcassonne for our fly-in a few weeks back. We had multiple arrivals from outside Schengen.
Le Touquet have a few hours PN and most of the time you do not see any border police or customs officers there although it is a very popular destination for extra-Schengen residents. Controls are more frequent now than they used to, but a lot of people will tell you that they never ever encounter any controls there.
I am going to Alderney from LFPT (no point of entry) on Sunday and will stop at LFRK (Caen) to comply with regulations. LFRK require prior notice no later than Friday at 16 Z and I have already called to provide them with my departure/arrival to/from EGJA. They did not ask for any passport details or anything like that. Just registration and my name.
This state of emergency thing is way exaggerated, except for those who have their homes broken into by the police in the middle of the night to search for bomb material or other terrorist parafernalia 
derek wrote:
The part that was not clear to me from any of the French official websites/NOTAMs/etc was that the prior notice periods apply from Schengen countries as well.
There are some airports that have introduced PN for all international flights. Colmar, Limoges and Auxerre are among them IIRC. But in the absence of published restrictions…
FWIW, I was at Colmar on the way back from Carcasonne and departed for Germany
(during ATC duty hours) without prior notice and without anyone objecting to it.
The Colmar NOTAM is still valid, but good to know that they no longer are very strict about enforcing it.
Flew to Alderney today via Caen. Have PN to OPS on Thursday. Had a very short turn-around time especially on the way back (less than 30 minutes).
No border control paid any interest to me either way.
Backing up a bit, one of the fundamentals of Schengen is that everyone (over 16 I think) must have an ID card on them at all times.
So:
1. The primary reason that the UK cannot be part of Schengen until everyone has ID cards.
2. Everybody, visitors and locals, all the time. Obligatory.
Of course, if you forget and are friendly there’s a good chance the cops will let you continue with a gentle warning. If you get annoyed, you might have a less-smooth journey.
Cheers, Sam.
No need for an ID CARD
Just have to have some form of official ID. Passport does the trick.nicely.
I know folks on the continent who have not had an ID card for more than 10 years….
Sam_Rutherford wrote:
Backing up a bit, one of the fundamentals of Schengen is that everyone (over 16 I think) must have an ID card on them at all times.So:
1. The primary reason that the UK cannot be part of Schengen until everyone has ID cards.
2. Everybody, visitors and locals, all the time. Obligatory.
That is not true. Swedish citizens never need to carry any kind of identification in Sweden and never have. And Sweden is part of Schengenland.
