Originally Posted by
750XL
Many years ago when travelling back from France with my uncle (different surname), we were refused travel on the Eurotunnel as I didn't have a 'permission letter' from my parents for him to take me out of the country...
Even today this is a matter that appears regularly on Francophile forums. If they do not have a passport (and most French of any age don't) French-nationality minors require formal permission to leave the state. When school trips are organised, it is common for a standard sheaf of documents to be demanded of all participants, including this authorisation, whereupon a good number of parents of foreign children dutifully trip down to the town hall and get Monsieur le Prefet to issue the document, something he has no lawful power to do.
I sometimes wonder if, when the eurocrats granted us "free movement" within the EEC/EC/EU, they didn't think we'd bring all our ideas, prejudices, private battles and emotional baggage with us.