“I take it your homebuilt being non-CofA requires PPR to fly in France so maybe that?”
No, no permission req for France, and non-asked for. They were only interested in the aircraft docs, Cert of Reg, Permit to fly, Cert of validity, Radio licence, Insurance etc etc. The group had a good knowledge of what a UK permit machine should have and asked reasonable questions given the order the papers were in in the file. I have visited France many times and have never seen this approach used, but apart from a short delay in our progress it was no problem.
Rod1