Useful report, Aviathor, thanks.
Worth noting however that you need the TOTAL card to get avgas, or maybe work the “other method” which involves cash to a helpful pilot of another plane 
I wonder what % of non-FR pilots have the TOTAL card. It was really hard to get for many years.
Peter wrote:
Worth noting however that you need the TOTAL card to get avgas
There are operations and a manned fuel truck, so just like in for example Colmar, I am sure that the attendant can help you refuel, issue a bill that you pay at operations. Pretty standard practice at all fields that have something more than just an aeroclub.
I can only say good things about Calais, relaxed, friendly and laid back.
David,
This is a useful map as a quick check when starting to plan a trip. Do you plan to update it? I think there have been changes since October, haven’t there?
An old thread, but a few days ago I heard from a pretty good source in France the “real reason” why this was done, specifically concerning the Paris airports.
Apparently, Brits were making too much noise down there, the local residents complained, so the DGAC came up with a plan which takes care of that while protecting French aeroclubs: remove customs/immigration.
Yes indeed. I never wanted to mention that because it is too embarrassing, The first thing British pilots did after landing at Toussus was to walk up to the bar below the tower building and drink themselves senseless. Thereafter they rampaged the nice neighbourhoods, urinated on the phone poles and defecated in the front yards before hailing a taxi to take them to Paris. I have that from a very reliable source too.
Aviathor wrote:
urinated on the phone poles and defecated in the front yards
Landing after hours after a long flight and the terminal is locked? 
Toussus has a lot of noise problems, and has banned circuits along with movements at night and at weekend lunchtimes etc for the sake of the local inhabitants.
Re Annemasse I used to know someone with a house in Switzerland who used LFLI as it’s much easier to cross the border by car.
Two visits to Le Touquet in the last couple of years, both times in a G-registered aircraft but French-speaking, once coming from UK and once from France: both times charged €30.00. If the charge is extra it must be done on registration?
The 2 hour notification is ok, as for me it’s about an hour’s flight to France, so no imposition; last visit to Le Touquet the police were there anyway… Longer notice or before closing on Friday afternoon is inconvenient as I’m VFR and usually plan trips at short notice. I’d rather visit new airfields, but with longer notice periods it’s usually easier to just keep landing at Cherbourg. Annoyingly some airports e.g. Lille recently have a police presence anyway.
Calais is the least hassle, although I had a scare there once: three douanes cars driving very fast with blue lights flashing and lots of men jumped out. Lucky escape as they went to a couple of German-registered Cessnas at the fuel pump instead.
I got caught by this customs/immigration withdrawal and had to cancel a flight to Abbeville (one weekend too late). Luckily I looked at the notams, and hadn’t booked the hotel. Talking to local UK pilots, they only pass the douane in one direction, i.e. landing in France, but not when leaving. This doesn’t seem to be enforced.
I think this reduction in customs is probably due to a perception of how time and money is spent. There might be an annual budget for driving to airfields that has been economisé?
Capitaine wrote:
Toussus has a lot of noise problems, and has banned circuits along with movements at night and at weekend lunchtimes etc for the sake of the local inhabitants.
The traffic volume between Toussus and the UK was probably not big enough for the closure of customs to have a significant effect on the total number of aircraft movements which I believe amounts to 180.000 per year.
One fun fact is that Valérie Pécresse, who was historically one of the most influential opponents of the Toussus airfield, who is the person who managed to introduce the traffic ban during week-end/holiday lunch hours in summer, and was actively working for closing it down until 2011, suddenly in 2012 changed her mind and stated she wanted to maintain the 300 jobs at the Toussus airfield. In 2016 she “regretted” that Toussus did not regain the status of PoE which would have represented an additional traffic of 5-8000 extra-Schengen movements to/from Toussus.
I would not say Toussus suffers from a noise problem. Toussus like manyother airfields, suffers from the fact that cities have popped up and grown all around it. And there are many highly educated and influential people who live underneath the path of traffic arriving or departing Toussus-le-Noble.
But claiming that Brits are making too much noise is just ludicrous.
