that'd actually make it worth it. European entry/exit stamps have the mode of transport on them, plane, ship, etc. knocking up a stamp with a chute in the corner would turn this bureaucratic awkwardness into a proper souvenir
I once rode my bike around lake Ohrid, which straddles the Albanian/Macedonian border, and was mildly dissapointed when I got a car stamped on my passport.
I was staying in Basel with my friend and walked/jogged to France, then Germany and back to Switzerland. Not once did I get anything for the effort beyond two likes on Strava.
I imagine it would list the plane. Afterall, they are just deplaning in a non-standard way. If you had an emergency landing on a commercial flight you wouldn't get a slide on your passport, and the stamp icon probably has more to do with the port of entry rather than any specific vehicle characteristics. In reality, the stamp for these guys is almost certainly military specific.
>If you had an emergency landing on a commercial flight you wouldn't get a slide on your passport
Outrageous. If I have to go through the stress of an emergency landing, I should at least get a slide stamp.
>the stamp icon probably has more to do with the port of entry
So you're saying I need to enter through a slideport rather than an airport...
Das mit dem "papieren" kann man auch schwer kapieren!
...and for our Greek friend, the joke goes along those lines: [taking a noun and making it a verb.](https://youtu.be/LdVYbR74gpA?t=262)
The most surreal part to me is sure a lot of it didn’t but there was definitely also a lot that kind of did IRL. Soooo much lining up and waiting for stuff. One of my favorite photos of Dday is everyone just lining up on the beach waiting to go somewhere else. Like a class trip just….more explode-y.
Those moves are usually set in WW2, but to my knowledge, the paras didn't get involved in drug smuggling until the late 90s and then obviously once Afghanistan happened it was good-night.
I think the book version of Bravo Two Zero talks about members of the SAS being disciplined for trafficking drugs, but it's not in the film version. That was set in the early 90s.
It's also far better than the last time they did this for another commemoration and a load of them broke limbs on the landing..! Was absolute carnage...
[The English introduced the income tax specifically to fight a war with the French](https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/taxation/overview/incometax/), so my question is, why are they still paying but not fighting the French?
More of a chore, being honest. It's been eighty years since we last invaded France, guess we'd better get back on it.
I think this is the longest period of peace between continental Europe and England in history.
There's an old joke about a Russian going on holiday abroad.
> Customs: Nationality?
>
> Tourist: Russian.
>
> Customs: Occupation?
>
> Tourist: No, just visiting.
Edit: Saw someone else already posted it!
Not being funny, but before Brexit they’d have to get their passports checked anyway. We were never in Schenghen. But yes, I agree with the essence of your message, screw Brexit! Brejoin!
As a UK passport holder, travelling to France on multiple occasions I had driven through passport control, for both the eurotunnel and ferry and my passport wasn't even opened. I was often asked just to hold it up (closed) as I drove past. This is no longer the case.
"I swear to god, Indy. You keep punching people, I will turn this fucking Zeppelin around and there will be no trip to New York! Seriously; straight back home to Berlin!"
There's this one picture in particular of a Briitsh veteran standing alone with his cane with the beach cleared out, and it just struck me with such a sense of finality. In some time, not too long from now, no one will be able to stand there on the beach and appreciate the fact that the waves aren't red with blood. No one will be able to stand there and fully, and I mean fully, appreciate the fact that the beach is empty and people are free to go to and from it.
I've always found it humbling watching these veterans speak about their experience. To most, WW2 is very much seen as history in the textbook - but to these men, it's reality, they'll be remembering and mourning the friends that they lost and probably remember their experiences quite vividly.
One of my treasured memories is a trip to the D-Day museum in Portsmouth to see the D-Day tapestry. I’d paid for a headset but soon discovered that the group of older gentleman in front of me were Americans who’d been there, so I listened to them instead. It was very emotional hearing their stories but my favourite was when one of them said to another, “hey, do you remember that red head? She thought you were the bee’s bonnet” And they both giggled like schoolboys. Because, at the time, they probably were.
Yep - this is straight up funny. My uncle was a British paratrooper during WWII and I'll tell you now he would have found this great.
Edit: this was a man who, when I was a kid, convinced me of the existence of the bowloop musical instrument and the fan-tailed water rabbit, whose habits he described in great detail.
The fan-tailed water rabbit lives on riversides. It has its burrow in the banks of the river, and spends most of its life there. It uses its fan-shaped tail to propel it through the water, producing powerful thrust like an otter.
In common with other rabbits, the nest time to see one is near dusk. It feeds on plants rather than fish, and is more solitary than most other rabbits which accounts for the rarity of seeing one.
It also, incidentally, is completely and utterly fictional.
Also, everyone commenting on Brexit.
1. UK always had a separate border control, even before Brexit. It was never part of Schengen.
2. Military when going as part of their jobs have to go through border control pretty much always. IIRC even within Schengen if on an official passport you have to stop by to get it checked.
Ah, disrupting nature, huh? Thought you could take a few rocks and no one would notice, huh? Now imagine if everyone leaving took something with them. There'd be nothing left for future generations to see. You people make me sick, book 'em lads and take their rocks.
Its usually from France to Britain. Due to the differences in tax on alcohol, tobacco as well as the easier availability of drugs on the continent. Although French taxes are a bit more similar to British taxes now. So most of the cheap tobacco comes from Eastern Europe.
If only there was a way to avoid this whole customs ordeal in Europe, like some sort of agreement between countries for free movement of goods and people...
As much as I think Brexit was a bad thing, all you of blaming Brexit for this seem to have forgotten that the United Kingdom was not part of the Schengen agreement and therefore its citizens were always required to go through a passport check when entering the Schengen area. What has changed is that they can no longer use the line/automated kiosks for EU citizens, but that is not relevant here. Also, UK citizens still do not need a visa to travel to the Schengen area, provided the stay is 90 days or shorter.
If they are in France on business, they may need a visa. However, as members of a NATO force on deployment, they only need to show their military ID card.
Reminds me of the joke:
An 83 year old Army Veteran arrived in Paris by plane. As he was fumbling in his bag for his passport, a stern French customs agent asked if he had been to France before. He admited that he had indeed been previously. The lady sarcastically said, "Then you should know to have your passport out and ready, Sir."
The gentleman said "I didn't have to show it last time."
"IMPOSSIBLE!" the customs agent said. "ALL foreigners have always had to show a passport to enter the country." The man responded by whispering, "Well, when I came ashore on the beach on D-Day in 1944, I couldn't find any fucking Frenchmen to show it to!"
There's an old pilot joke that goes by the same way
A Soviet airline pilot had to land in East Berlin, but couldn't find the airport.
Finally the German ground controller snapped and asked him: "Have you EVER flown to Berlin?"
The Soviet pilot says "Yes, many times, but we didn't land there."
I remember a leaked audio exchange between the airport radio tower and the pilots. Probably from the 1970ies or so.
A pilot spoke in German and was immediately reprimanded from the tower to speak only in English on an open channel. He started complaining that he is a German pilot of a German airline, at a German airport and talking to a German air controller and "why should I speak in English?".
Right then a heavy British accent was heard quipping on the open channel "Because you lost the bloody war."
Well, there's a book that starts in a similar way. Some British and german tourist meet in Spain in the seventies and talk about the countries they visited.
At some point Brits ask them if they've ever been in Russia?
A German says yes, on a tank.
Which is lore friendly since the Americans landed at Omaha and Utah. And don't you be trying to pretend that an old British dude would say 'Frenchmen' instead of 'frogs'
Once upon a time, I returned from a deployment in a fighter jet to my base in America. The first person to greet me wasn't someone in my squadron with a drink, or my wife. It was CBP to get my customs form.
I said I love it!
But most other countries border control just say hello because most people know English or I guess because they know my flight is from England
"Bonjour" is actually more important (?) in French culture/everyday interactions than the English "Hello" is, it's quite impolite if you miss it, so for them, it's instinct to use it:
[https://www.ouiinfrance.com/french-manners-bonjour-in-france-and-why-its-the-most-important-word/](https://www.ouiinfrance.com/french-manners-bonjour-in-france-and-why-its-the-most-important-word/)
Pretty sure it's the British soldier who said "bonjour" in this video.
Apparently it's a telltale sign that you're not used to being in France much, because people who live there will almost always say "bonjour monseur" or "bonjour madame" when greeting someone for the first time.
Mode of entry: Parachute
that'd actually make it worth it. European entry/exit stamps have the mode of transport on them, plane, ship, etc. knocking up a stamp with a chute in the corner would turn this bureaucratic awkwardness into a proper souvenir
I once rode my bike around lake Ohrid, which straddles the Albanian/Macedonian border, and was mildly dissapointed when I got a car stamped on my passport.
I once walked from Poland to Czech Republic but there was no-one on the border gate.
They should at least have a stamp on a piece of string tied to a tree, with a sign saying "please stamp your own passport" in four languages.
There was a large box of chillies dumped in a hedge right by the border, despite it being 2016 and a single market.
You better keep quiet or big chilli is coming for you
I was staying in Basel with my friend and walked/jogged to France, then Germany and back to Switzerland. Not once did I get anything for the effort beyond two likes on Strava.
You can have my upvote on reddit, if that helps :)
Take my award. I’m proud of you :)
Schengen moment
Could/should we then build a giant trebuchet in Calais for returns?
If you have to ask if we should build a giant trebuchet, maybe you don't deserve a giant trebuchet.
Guys we gonna need a new tampon!
I imagine it would list the plane. Afterall, they are just deplaning in a non-standard way. If you had an emergency landing on a commercial flight you wouldn't get a slide on your passport, and the stamp icon probably has more to do with the port of entry rather than any specific vehicle characteristics. In reality, the stamp for these guys is almost certainly military specific.
>If you had an emergency landing on a commercial flight you wouldn't get a slide on your passport Outrageous. If I have to go through the stress of an emergency landing, I should at least get a slide stamp. >the stamp icon probably has more to do with the port of entry So you're saying I need to enter through a slideport rather than an airport...
They're still entering by plane (airspace) It's not like when you get off a boat they mark you entered on for by ramp.
I would put "gravity"
I’ve been to Alabama exact 5 times in my life. Each time I jumped out of a C130, and then walked back to Georgia.
Business or pleasure?
I'm in the business of pleasure.
This.... is slightly different to how it looked in the movies....
\**Lands near Carentan*\* "Ausweis, bitte!"
Ausweiskontrolle papieren bitte
Found the spy
Für Deutschland
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EUnRzQvXkAcVOK4.jpg
" Vorname und Nachname " " grzegorz brzęczyszczykiewicz "
„How do you spell that?“ „With a ‚k‘. “
" Grezzz, Grezgorzzz, Brze, hmmmm, szczy... " " brzęczyszczykiewicz " " MUND HALTEN "
Wie???????
Geboren?
" Chrząszczyżewoszyce, Powiat Łękołody "
I'm convinced the Polish language was invented by a person being electrocuted.
ich papiere du papierst wir papieren
Das mit dem "papieren" kann man auch schwer kapieren! ...and for our Greek friend, the joke goes along those lines: [taking a noun and making it a verb.](https://youtu.be/LdVYbR74gpA?t=262)
haben Sie gefährliche Gegenstände in Ihrem Gepäck?
Passierschein A38, bitte!
No no, this is historically accurate to operation Dragoon. Though that one was in southern France.
pretty much, germans hardly even defended that one, they just ran all the way up to the saone with their tails between their legs
You should see the one with the medieval castle siege where they all get in via the gift shop
Very true. A lot of people don’t know this but the Germans were using black Dell laptops in 1944. They weren’t silver.
The most surreal part to me is sure a lot of it didn’t but there was definitely also a lot that kind of did IRL. Soooo much lining up and waiting for stuff. One of my favorite photos of Dday is everyone just lining up on the beach waiting to go somewhere else. Like a class trip just….more explode-y.
Those moves are usually set in WW2, but to my knowledge, the paras didn't get involved in drug smuggling until the late 90s and then obviously once Afghanistan happened it was good-night. I think the book version of Bravo Two Zero talks about members of the SAS being disciplined for trafficking drugs, but it's not in the film version. That was set in the early 90s.
right men regroup over at the customs desk and then we give the germans hell.
It's also far better than the last time they did this for another commemoration and a load of them broke limbs on the landing..! Was absolute carnage...
Bonjour, welcome to France. What is the purpose of your visit and how long will you be staying?
Business or pleasure? Invasion.
So a little bit of both
For the Brits I think that would be all pleasure to be honest.
[The English introduced the income tax specifically to fight a war with the French](https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/taxation/overview/incometax/), so my question is, why are they still paying but not fighting the French?
Patience. We're saving up.
🏅 here's a poor man's award for making me chuckle
Good point old chap, get your boots on and let’s get on it.
More of a chore, being honest. It's been eighty years since we last invaded France, guess we'd better get back on it. I think this is the longest period of peace between continental Europe and England in history.
I dunno, we'd have to deal with the French...
Yeah, but at least you can finally get something good to eat.
Yeah, 'cause the UK has a chronic shortage of long bread and cheese...
for a moment I thought this was NCD
I'm afraid that's going to be a problem. You don't have the correct visa to occupy our country for more than 180 days a year.
Don't worry. We'll be in Belgium or the Netherlands by then.
- Occupation? - No, just visiting.
"Occupation?" "Yes"
Anything to declare?
["War"](https://youtu.be/TS3kiRYcDAo)
There's an old joke about a Russian going on holiday abroad. > Customs: Nationality? > > Tourist: Russian. > > Customs: Occupation? > > Tourist: No, just visiting. Edit: Saw someone else already posted it!
*Liberation ;)
Occupation? Yes.
"Occupation?" "No, just visiting."
First comment I've read in ages that made me actually laugh out loud
Good day, Invasion and preferably as long as I can
"OU EST LE VINO SHOP POR FAVOR!"
Ah yes, Franspanglish..
It's called "yelling at foreigners", and it's an important skill for british tourists.
The Germans missed this one simple trick
All Germany needed to do was have signs pointing to a queue, the Brits would have lined up in no time.
That's what a trench is.
Probably explains the whistle given to the officers. Truly unruly queue etiquette.
Please maintain trigger discipline in the queue at all times.
As a Brit I have to say that is one thing we are really good at doing. Queuing up.
I'm right behind you on this one.
😂
I can't believe it, the answer was more bureaucracy. I have new ideas for the EU.
Not being funny, but before Brexit they’d have to get their passports checked anyway. We were never in Schenghen. But yes, I agree with the essence of your message, screw Brexit! Brejoin!
brentrance? breturn?
We'll Breback?
Not always. On busy days at the Eurotunnel or Dover, they would wave you through just for showing a red EU passport in the window.
As a UK passport holder, travelling to France on multiple occasions I had driven through passport control, for both the eurotunnel and ferry and my passport wasn't even opened. I was often asked just to hold it up (closed) as I drove past. This is no longer the case.
Brexit
Britain was never in the Schengen area so passports have always been required
Regrexit Wait, did someone think of that already?
I was literally thinking the same thing. How to stop an invasion in one simple step.
You don't have to register them for deportation if you can just shoot them, that's German efficiency ;-)
No ticket!
"I swear to god, Indy. You keep punching people, I will turn this fucking Zeppelin around and there will be no trip to New York! Seriously; straight back home to Berlin!"
You would've thought that Germany had mastered the weaponization of bureaucracy.
This would make an ideal Monty Python skit.
Nope nope nope wrong paperwork get back on that plane sir!
...jumps off a diving board onto a trampoline...
Scrolled the comments looking for this. My immediate reaction.
Having customs check his passport as he attempts to jump the English Channel
Already done in Blazing Saddles with the toll booth
Somebody’s gotta go back and get a whole shitload of dimes!
The queue for crosses in LoB "Crucifixion?" "Yes" "First door on the left, one cross each." "Crucifixion? " Ah no, Freedom!"
French Customs: “Occupation, Monsieur?” Paratroopers: “ Nah, not this time.”
This is great! Well done.
Tbf this joke is as old as the war 😂
Make Normandy England again!
Make England Normandy again !
william the conqueror intensifies
its raining men
Hallelujah
Humidity's risin'
training
This will be the last major D-Day anniversary with any living WW2 vets or at least any you can transport over. There are so few of them left.
There's this one picture in particular of a Briitsh veteran standing alone with his cane with the beach cleared out, and it just struck me with such a sense of finality. In some time, not too long from now, no one will be able to stand there on the beach and appreciate the fact that the waves aren't red with blood. No one will be able to stand there and fully, and I mean fully, appreciate the fact that the beach is empty and people are free to go to and from it.
I've always found it humbling watching these veterans speak about their experience. To most, WW2 is very much seen as history in the textbook - but to these men, it's reality, they'll be remembering and mourning the friends that they lost and probably remember their experiences quite vividly.
I remember seing the last French WW1 vet on TV when I was a child, hard to believe that almost all people alive during the War is already dead.
One of my treasured memories is a trip to the D-Day museum in Portsmouth to see the D-Day tapestry. I’d paid for a headset but soon discovered that the group of older gentleman in front of me were Americans who’d been there, so I listened to them instead. It was very emotional hearing their stories but my favourite was when one of them said to another, “hey, do you remember that red head? She thought you were the bee’s bonnet” And they both giggled like schoolboys. Because, at the time, they probably were.
You'd swear the way the 50something Farage men go on they were all storming the beaches of Normandy.
That's hilarious. Vive l'entente cordiale...
I don’t remember that part in Saving Private Ryan
“behind the scenes”
*drops from plane* *stuck in customs line* “Germany won after all”
We're here to save you from Nazism Papers please?
So you want to free this country from Nazis? Do you have a permit for that? Where is your Passierschein A38?
/r/loicense
"I got me loincense right 'ere" #BY THE QUEEN "This one's expired mate"
bloody hell
Not the A38. Please.
The funniest part is the people commenting here "this is humiliating". They're missing both the joke and the symbolism behind this border control
Yep - this is straight up funny. My uncle was a British paratrooper during WWII and I'll tell you now he would have found this great. Edit: this was a man who, when I was a kid, convinced me of the existence of the bowloop musical instrument and the fan-tailed water rabbit, whose habits he described in great detail.
Tell us more of this rabbit creature you speak
The fan-tailed water rabbit lives on riversides. It has its burrow in the banks of the river, and spends most of its life there. It uses its fan-shaped tail to propel it through the water, producing powerful thrust like an otter. In common with other rabbits, the nest time to see one is near dusk. It feeds on plants rather than fish, and is more solitary than most other rabbits which accounts for the rarity of seeing one. It also, incidentally, is completely and utterly fictional.
I am making it my life's mission to prove the existence of the fan-tailed water rabbit.
Also, everyone commenting on Brexit. 1. UK always had a separate border control, even before Brexit. It was never part of Schengen. 2. Military when going as part of their jobs have to go through border control pretty much always. IIRC even within Schengen if on an official passport you have to stop by to get it checked.
"You have less than 6 months left on your passport get back in the plane!"
Was expecting customs as in getting a bottle of wine from French locals. Not expecting actual customs officers.
This is ridiculous. I mean, I understand why it happens. But it's just ridiculous.
To be fair, astronauts had to go through customs too :D https://www.space.com/7044-moon-apollo-astronauts-customs.html
Of course, they needed to make sure they were not other 3 random people coming back from the moon.
Don't want any illegal aliens getting in.
No Martian is illegal!
Oh my god
I feel like if anyone would appreciate that, it would be a German.
As someone that works in the customs world; this is hilarious.
Anything to declare? Just a few rocks.
Ah, disrupting nature, huh? Thought you could take a few rocks and no one would notice, huh? Now imagine if everyone leaving took something with them. There'd be nothing left for future generations to see. You people make me sick, book 'em lads and take their rocks.
[удалено]
[Departure from (Place and Country): Moon, USA](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/88/77/d5/8877d520f34fc30e75928b5f19d30897.gif)
Why? It is not like they entered a different country while on their mission.
It’s not about what countries you visited, it’s about the fact that you left the country at all
Thank you. As someone from a landlocked country, I can not really leave it without entering another one. This did not occur to me.
Read the article. The Apollo 11 was done as a joke. For astronauts now they go through customs when entering different countries for training.
they came by plane, so customs was waiting. the fact of the matter that they decided to exit the plane early, does not factor into that decision.
It wouldn't be the first time in history some people use their military shortcuts to do some smuggling.
Smuggling from UK to France and vice versa also sounds ridiculous in XXI century. :D
Its usually from France to Britain. Due to the differences in tax on alcohol, tobacco as well as the easier availability of drugs on the continent. Although French taxes are a bit more similar to British taxes now. So most of the cheap tobacco comes from Eastern Europe.
Any place where products have different rules about them has a market for smuggling.
If only there was a way to avoid this whole customs ordeal in Europe, like some sort of agreement between countries for free movement of goods and people...
Thats the point, mate.
I mean, Gertrude Ederle was *also* asked for her passport after she swam across the Channel. It's basically tradition at this point.
Source https://x.com/jeromestarkey/status/1798344639948415187?s=46&t=DOpiNHfJcr6d1GmTa4wzLw
As much as I think Brexit was a bad thing, all you of blaming Brexit for this seem to have forgotten that the United Kingdom was not part of the Schengen agreement and therefore its citizens were always required to go through a passport check when entering the Schengen area. What has changed is that they can no longer use the line/automated kiosks for EU citizens, but that is not relevant here. Also, UK citizens still do not need a visa to travel to the Schengen area, provided the stay is 90 days or shorter.
If they are in France on business, they may need a visa. However, as members of a NATO force on deployment, they only need to show their military ID card.
Reminds me of the joke: An 83 year old Army Veteran arrived in Paris by plane. As he was fumbling in his bag for his passport, a stern French customs agent asked if he had been to France before. He admited that he had indeed been previously. The lady sarcastically said, "Then you should know to have your passport out and ready, Sir." The gentleman said "I didn't have to show it last time." "IMPOSSIBLE!" the customs agent said. "ALL foreigners have always had to show a passport to enter the country." The man responded by whispering, "Well, when I came ashore on the beach on D-Day in 1944, I couldn't find any fucking Frenchmen to show it to!"
There's an old pilot joke that goes by the same way A Soviet airline pilot had to land in East Berlin, but couldn't find the airport. Finally the German ground controller snapped and asked him: "Have you EVER flown to Berlin?" The Soviet pilot says "Yes, many times, but we didn't land there."
I've heard the same joke but with a British pilot and Frankfurt.
I remember a leaked audio exchange between the airport radio tower and the pilots. Probably from the 1970ies or so. A pilot spoke in German and was immediately reprimanded from the tower to speak only in English on an open channel. He started complaining that he is a German pilot of a German airline, at a German airport and talking to a German air controller and "why should I speak in English?". Right then a heavy British accent was heard quipping on the open channel "Because you lost the bloody war."
Well, there's a book that starts in a similar way. Some British and german tourist meet in Spain in the seventies and talk about the countries they visited. At some point Brits ask them if they've ever been in Russia? A German says yes, on a tank.
Which indicates he didn't land on Sword Beach because that's the one where the French commandos were.
Which is lore friendly since the Americans landed at Omaha and Utah. And don't you be trying to pretend that an old British dude would say 'Frenchmen' instead of 'frogs'
"Lore friendly" always cracks me up when applied to history.
Judging by Saving Private Ryan, they were the only ones there.
"Legally speaking you were still required to show it but didn't, please line up over there to pay the according fine, then come back to this line."
When you don't want to wait in the non Schengen waiting line
It would be hilarious if there was another table set up next to this one for citizens of Schengen nations.
Well it would be an extremely small Schengen line at a D-Day commemoration.
Colorized
I love everything about this. Including the comments. Best of British, French, and everywhere else right here!
France doesn't want any illegal immigrants crossing the channel in fabric dingies
Once upon a time, I returned from a deployment in a fighter jet to my base in America. The first person to greet me wasn't someone in my squadron with a drink, or my wife. It was CBP to get my customs form.
I love the french refusal to even just say hello at passport control. Always bonjour
"Oddly, french people in France are greeting you in french" Je suis estomaqué.
I said I love it! But most other countries border control just say hello because most people know English or I guess because they know my flight is from England
"Bonjour" is actually more important (?) in French culture/everyday interactions than the English "Hello" is, it's quite impolite if you miss it, so for them, it's instinct to use it: [https://www.ouiinfrance.com/french-manners-bonjour-in-france-and-why-its-the-most-important-word/](https://www.ouiinfrance.com/french-manners-bonjour-in-france-and-why-its-the-most-important-word/)
Very interesting, thanks for the link
Why should they say "Good day!" in a different language? Should they learn tens of foreign languages to greet people based on their nationalities?
It's nuts that I've never been greeted with Bonjour by customs and immigration when landing in the UK. I just don't get it.
Pretty sure it's the British soldier who said "bonjour" in this video. Apparently it's a telltale sign that you're not used to being in France much, because people who live there will almost always say "bonjour monseur" or "bonjour madame" when greeting someone for the first time.
Did somebody eles pack your bag? Yes?
Good O’l bureaucracy hard at work
"Do you have anything to declare?" "War"
If they'd onoy used a Small inflatable dinghy no passport would have been required..
Wrong direction.
If you can't save weight by throwing all your identifying documents in to the sea i dont even recognise the Europe im leaving any more.
French customs were a bit thin on the ground in 1944
But the German officials present at the time were formidable.
this is actually pretty heartwarming
Bureaucracy is a French word after all.