France with no passport

[URaflutteringcunt]

Was there ever a time you could get to France with no passport? By Eurostar.

DP is adamant.

Not sure about that, but there was such a thing as a temporary (1year) passport that you could get from the post office. You could also go to the passport office without an appointment, put in an application and pick it up same day.
I guess technically to go to France you would have needed ID to comply with French rules, but not necessarily a passport .

When I was a kid you could get a kind of day pass. I had one for a school trip. It was available at the post office. This was years before Eurostar though.

I remember going to France in the 90’s by ferry/coach and passports were never checked

He said it wasn’t a temporary passport, it was like a visa.

Did you definitely not have a passport at all @Zonder . I didn’t have my own, I was named on my mums ad children were in the 80’s/90’s so I technically did have one.

Year not day!
Found this example of one.

Kids could travel on their parents passports I believe.

I don't think so. It opened in 94 and we used it in 96, taking DS abroad for the first time, and we definitely got his first passport for that trip.

There was no passport control at the UK end though, only the French side, so maybe that's what he's half remembering? I think they came through the train and checked all passports. Perhaps he hid in the loos...

No facts here but I would have said the same as your other half! I always thought there was a time when you could go to France just with ID!

I went for a day trip to France by ferry in the mid 80s with my kids without any passports. It took a bit of persuading but they let us in.

With school late 80s we travelled by ferry and bus to Austria (passi g through France, Germany and possibly Belgium) with a group passport. We all had a photo card but it wasn't a full passport and I'm sure it was only valid for that one trip.

I remember school trips where the teacher had some sort of visa to cover us all, no individual passports. This would have been late 70s.

Friends mum got to France on her library card

was only when she came back into the UK did anyone notice.

Passports have been required to leave the country since WW1.
I can’t see why mode of transport would make any difference.

Yes. I think we went on a school trip with something similar.

I think Visitor Passports ended before Eurostar began.

yes I definitely went to Disneyland Paris on a school trip when I was in high school (around 1997ish) without a passport. The school had organised a document for the kids who never had a passport but don't know how?

He was old enough by the time of Eurostar not to be going with school though. The way he was talking I thought he meant the NHS card you used to take on holidays.

Google tells me that the British Visitors Passport stopped in January 1996 so if Eurostar opened in 1994 (I haven't checked but PP quoted that year) then it was definitely possible to travel on a 'piece of card" bought over the counter at the Post Office.

I definitely went to Belgium without a passport with the school in 1986, and we went for a week so it was more than a day pass. Not Eurostar though, obviously.
I actually don’t think I got a passport until I went to the US in 1994 - and before then I had been to France several times, Spain and Malta. Not 100 per cent on that, but I definitely didn’t have one to go to Belgium.

This is still possible - group passport. Just for under 18s.

On Eurostar, I don't think so. It didn't launch until early 90s and passports were definitely needed for travel to France then. They check them when you check in, like you do on a plane.

I remember a friend not coming with us to France on a school trip as she didn’t have a passport. Maybe 1994?

Channel tunnel maybe with hiding kids in back of car?
Border control was a bit more lax pre 2001....

My brother travelled to France on Eurostar in about 2001 with an expired passport. We handed over the 4 for the people in the car and started to explain but the disinterested border guard had handed them back and waved us through before we got the words out.

That sounds like an excuse, esp if group passports are still available.