I was in a market town, walking down the main public street, camera in hand, when I saw an interesting historical building from the 18th century, so took some photographs. There was a modern building within the same grounds next to it, but I passed that and photographed a little more of the water feature, bridge and old building on the other side when a van crossed the bridge and stopped to observe me.
A nearby man on the street stopped me, and politely told me it was a naval base, and I can’t photograph it. I thanked him for informing me, and said I was surprised, as I didn’t know its purpose and was just on the public street, photographing, which in most countries is perfectly permissible.
The man in the van caught me up a minute or so later, and again was polite but asked to see my photographs and requested I delete them. I figured it wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to refuse, so I politely showed him what I’d taken and he watched as I deleted them and we parted ways.
Photographs of this part of the naval base from the public road are all over the internet, even on wikipedia, so I think it was a little paranoid. I didn’t know it was a naval facility at the time, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered photographing anything.
I’m assuming France is different to other countries like the UK or USA, where you more or less have the legal right to photograph whatever you want if it’s from a public place. My photographs were purely personal, I had no intention of sharing them or commercialising them. I was just curious as to the legality in France, as I recall my wife got caught out in Paris once, when she accidentally photographed an embassy building and security weren’t at all happy.
