UK outbound GAR does not really show them the time of arrival at destination.
I made it clear to them of the actual time of arrival by email to the accompanying ‘outbound’ GAR. I find it simpler to ‘create’ such a GAR for them.
gallois wrote:
Not that aggressive a letter. “You will be told off if you arrive at the time you have indicated.”
Huh? AFAIK a procés verbal is a citation like a traffic ticket
I am open to be corrected having never received a procės verbal and I have never heard of anyone being cited or given a ticket for landing at an airport without PN.
What would be more usual would.be that some border force officer would go on ar you in seems like a right telling off before shaking your hand in a friendly manner and waving as s/he walks away. (Of course they can’t shake your hand at the moment and a fist or elbow bump would just not seem right.
I can’t see French border force officers bothering to try and read a UK outgoing GAR, it’s a form they have not been trained on. Much better to just list the information in an email commencing bonjour and ending with cordialement.
Peter_G wrote:
perform a wedding at Vannes LFRV
Is there a prize for best reason to fly to France?
Shame to hear this about Cherbourg, which I’ve always found completely uninterested. Hopefully it’s just a format problem as Gallois says.
Maybe fly in uniform? 
I once emailed to the office at Troyes, 2 hrs late on a 24hr notice requirement for immigration.
I apologised in the accompanying email.
It was stated the cut of time for notice was around 16:00hrs.
I got a quick and abrupt reply like Peter.
It did feel quite unnecessarily abrupt.
So we landed at Calais was waved through without checks, and IIRC wasn’t charged a landing fee. (Which I am happy to pay to support the infrastructure we all need)
Landed at Troyes on time. The guy at the desk was so friendy and helpful but not surprised at their attitude.
I also have been sending notifications in the same format as Peter, but I do additionally just plainly type the details in the actual email, in case they don’t open the attachment.
I avoid sending “sophisticated files” to any GA or Aviation email (most places run their PC on Win95 with 10kb max email and full mailbox, so it will just bounce if it’s big size or crash when they open the file), I just write a text email: “hello, reg, date, pob names & nationalities & dob, see you soon”
I just noticed that Cherbourg has now joined the list of private Edeis airports that comes with “the benifits of tight security & useful handling”, so I expect dealing with the private Ops and their “customs friends” to be interesting in the future to come, I guess one will have to send PNR with MyHandling or go away?
Few other airports have followed this fashion in the last 5 years (Dijon, Tours, Havre and now Troyes & Cherbourg…)
I recall visiting Cherbourg late 2019 where they just bought it and were renovating the terminal, I am looking for my next visit there in summer 2022 !
I can’t speak French but
sounds a perfect description
But, looking at it as a businessman, I just don’t understand this. Cherbourg:
and these N French airports depend heavily on UK traffic.
I can see that Cherbourg is a strategic runway for urgent operations at the nearby nuclear facility, so it will be open (with everybody there wasting their life on fb/twatter/instagram) even if there is only one movement a year. So, I guess, nobody cares. But then, apart from the jewel of Le Touquet, nobody cares about French airports anyway. The police (the govt, implicitly) certainly don’t care. If they close, they close… Do the aeroclubs care? There is very little GA in the NW tip of France. I can see they don’t care about UK traffic, but without that the airport has no chance of making ends meet. It will be a permanent cash drain on the govt.
Most airports in France do not rely on UK traffic, especially UK GA traffic. I don’t know what gives you that idea.
For the most part in France GA is considered a sport or leisure activity. There are many who would say that there are too many International Airports especially with Schengen, which should cut the number of International GA traffic needing such airports.
You just can’t keep some of these airports open and staffed (especially with C&I) to deal with less than 10 aircraft a week coming from the UK or Switzerland, it is just not economically viable.
All airport closures are fought strongly by one group or another. Where there are clubs based at them, the FFA leads the way, and has been known to buy a threatened airfield in the past.
Sometimes they lose when faced with the local mayor who might have strong anti ga views, eg Frejus.
Our airfield was once a few hundred metres away but the town needed to expand. A local farmer donated the land for the current airfield. Successive CCI’s and Mayors have seen the airfield and its clubs as community assets, but in the sport and recreation field.Not transport. The mayor’s office has supported the airfield with town staff cutting grass, repairing the roads into and out. They put together the funds for a hard runway and built and maintain it and they give the aero club an annual convention. They also negotiated a GNSS approach.
We have no landing or handling or parking fees and you don’t need to PN or PPR.
You can arrive and leave to and from any customs union member of Schengen on just a flight plan.
This year, looking at the visitors book, we have had about 3 UK visitors by ga. So I cannot see any effort going into easy access to C&I.
La Rochelle has C&I albeit with PN. But if it wasn’t for Ryan Air, now that Flybe is no longer operating there, I think all C&I might stop there too. The amount of UK ga traffic is tiny even with low landing and parking fees, ILS, NDB, RNP approaches and open even when it gets dark..
I think you will find a similar scenario throughout France.
On the subject of abrupt replies, what you consider abrupt may be normal language in France.
For instance a UK pilot requests, a French pilot demands. Je demande being the French for I request.
Secondly the French find it amusing when the English " Peter, would you mind, if you can reach, and ,when you have a moment, passing the salt please" as opposed to the French way of “Pierre, pass the salt”.(in French of course) :🙂
Sorry I am French and I take that email as abrupt reply, I personally would not have flown there on busy schedule but I would have followed up by phone though as it’s way more personal 
Most NW France big airports don’t have any traffic at all and are not sustainable and I really doubt British GA will save them (except in terms of mouvements reports rather than dollar values) but their future is pending on next years budget decisions, the main difference is that on public airports you are “entitled to visit and roam free” on semi-private airport you have the whole pack: security, permissions and someone to baby sit you or police you
