Third world problems and all that, but my dad lost his passport and only realised when packing to return home after a week in La Rochelle. That was Saturday. Rather than just abandon him I volunteered to stay. Emergency papers will be ready late today or tomorrow, then we can drive back from Bordeaux to Cheshire.

Best part of an extra week off, sounds great, but in my mind I was coming home last weekend, so it’s a bit of a pain in the arse. Bored.

Insurance doesn’t cover you. I had the same in Spain, cost me a fair few quid to extend the stay, replace passport, change flights.

If it is any consolation (it probably isn’t) in the last two weeks I have seen/heard of two others in a similar situation. The first was an American on a coach tour of the Normandy Beaches trying to get the last hotel he stayed in to forward the contents of his safe (including passports and credit cards) to the next hotel he was going to….. It was not going well.

Then two nights ago in Reims, a haggard looking farther of two upset kids was trying to get the hotel receptionist to explain the someone on the phone that he had hidden (and then left behind) all of the family passports inside a zipped cushion in his last hotel room. The problem seemed to be that the room had been cleaned and was now occupied by new guests and the previous hotel were reluctant to knock on their door late at night……

The mantra in our family is at the start of each leg of the journey we say “tickets, passports, Money?” as we check each in turn….

We are talking a fair few years ago now but one of my entourage lost his passport while in France and it took just a simple visit to the local Gendarmerie to report it and he was given a form/piece of paper to present at immigration when returning back to the UK. All went well with seemingly minimal fuss.

Stick him in the boot and cover him up…seems to work for 100’s of people so far

Could he do something which would get him deported but not imprisoned?
Often wondered why people don’t do this instead of buying a return flight, loads cheaper.

Wife’s passport was in a bag nicked in Amsterdam. UK embassy just gave her a form of some sort and told her to explain that at immigration. Immigration at Heathrow were sceptical but seeing as she was with both parents, partner and sibling, let her in.

School cycling trip to Normandy circa 1984…….one of the kids loses passport halfway through. Teacher totally unflapped says not to worry, we’ll sort it out on the way home. Just chatted to passport control on entry to the ferry and showed a fax from school he’d got sent to one of our campsites of the kids passport i.e i’ve got 15 kids and one of the little rascals has lost his passport but here’s a picture of it and that was it, on we went.

Of course things are totally different now because progress. oh and I imagine the cycling trip would be off limits too – one teacher and 15 kids on an unsupported cycle tour, the horror!!!

schools keep very close care of passports nowadays – that didn’t stop one of the kids on my wife’s last trip losing his passport between getting off the plane (where they were handed to the kids one by one) and passport control, with zero stops in between. The kid was allowed through after a couple of hours rubber-gloving.

Heh, thanks all.
In the end plans changed about 2 mins after my first post, and I’ve come back on the plane today. Emergency paperwork being picked up 10am tomorrow, (Tuesday) and he’s on a teatime fast-ferry on Wednesday from Cherbourg, which splits a very long drive into 2 sensible portions. Stop over on Wednesday evening with a pal in Hampshire and back home on Thursday.

I do now wonder what would have happened if we just rocked up at the ferry port with one passport and a pair of driving licence ID’s between us, but I don’t think he’d have liked that risk.

Turned into a bloody expensive ‘week’ (damn near two actually).

I made a copy of the photo page of my passport and laminated it; I carry it somewhere other than where my actual passport is. I’m hoping it would get me back into the UK in an emergency.

I think you’d have problems, because the Europeans all electronically scan UK passports, and there can’t be any non-chipped ones left in circulation. Mine runs out next year, and that’s chipped.

Even if they weren’t too bothered, I bet UK immigration would be.

Why the bloody hell we never joined Schengen baffles me, not that it’d be useful for much longer.

I think things have tightened up since, but 5 years ago, we realised the night before a trip to France (Eurotunnel) that junior’s passport had run out. We actually discussed sticking him in the boot but decided to take a chance going out and got waved through by the French customs. Every time since we’ve had to show all passports to get on.

On the way back, we pleaded ignorance (at UK customs in Calais) and a very grumpy UK border control guy eventually let us through after making some phone calls and commenting that people like us were the reason for the enormous queues!
I vaguely remember reading at the time that UK customs won’t refuse a UK national re-entry. Obviously doesn’t work at airports as they won’t let you on the flight