The CdS is not necessarily yours by a divine right… it is at the States’ pleasure and can be withdrawn at any time in certain circumstances. As with most things, it is the holders responsibility to justify its continuance if challenged 
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Perhaps visit the nearest Mairie or other official office? Surely they would be able to provide something that would prove where you were on a particular day.
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I live 20mins from the border with Spain and have been “across” a few times to do shopping or go for lunch at a popular Costa Brava port. Never has there once been anyone on duty at Perthuis/La Jonquera and my family regularly go and said the only time was when covid restrictions stopped movement and they didn’t bother going shopping. Anyone in a french reg car will not be that noticeable unless there is a manhunt or special drugs/contrabrand exercise going on and all vehicles are stopped regardless. I carry my passport just to be covered.
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Doesn’t appear on the list of reasons to rescind a Carte de Séjour.
- Vous vivez en état de polygamie en France
- Vous avez commis des faits exposant à une condamnation (trafic de drogue, esclavage, traite des humains, proxénétisme, racolage…)
- Vous avez employé illégalement un travailleur étranger
- Vous ne vous êtes pas rendu aux convocations de la préfecture pour vérifier que vous remplissez toujours les conditions de délivrance de votre carte séjour
- Vous avez fait l’objet d’une mesure d’expulsion ou d’interdiction du territoire français (ITF)
- Vous constituez une menace pour l’ordre public
The period allowed for travelling through a country not your place of residence in order to reach your resident State is shown to be 5 days.
So that’s quite legal and clearly so. I just wouldn’t recommend other than providing justification to your host State - if challenged - that you did not overstay your visa.
Thank you Jane, in other words you have to be a criminal to be turned out, not guilty of a misdemeanor such as crossing a frontier back into home territory when there was nobody about to record it.
If there was to be any sanction at all I would have thought it would be by the Spanish authorities, not the French. I hardly think that the French authorities would be expelling French residents, workers, or pensioners for such a minor matter.
@graham The document you link also states that
Holders of a residence permit in one of the Schengen States are exempt from visa.
although at the bottom it does also say that the document is 16 years out of date, and nowhere does it mention a sanction of deportation from a residence country for an infrigement in another country.
I do not think we should be worried. 
I personally wouldn’t wish to test it…
If you have the documentary proof that you exited the area for which you do not have a visa (CdS or equiv) within the required time scale (90/180) then, as stated clearly above, you will be fine.
Exceeding the limits is not to be encouraged, don’t you agree?
A bit like some people who encourage you to do something questionable when it doesn’t affect them and then when you are fingered disappear in to the ether leaving you to face the consequences… 
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I heartily agree … and don’t intend to give anyone the chance to “point the finger”… !!
although in my case, it’s easily avoided… since the thought of being away from home for anything like 90 days… is totally unthinkable… 
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absolutely correct @Stella
If someone plans to be in another State for more than the 90/180 limit surely it behoves them to take the appropriate steps - in advance - to have their stay regularised.
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I agree with what you and Stella are saying, and the same applies to me, but we weren’t really talking about people who intended to remain in a Schengen state more than their alloted visa time there, more people who had arrived in a state, say Spain, by air or sea where there would be a record and then left well within the visa limit but by an unguarded frontier. They may even only be in Spain for a week or so and then back home in France for the next year. Are they expected to actively search border crossings in order to get an exit stamp, hardly likely, and it is that case that I wouldn’t expect another state, France, the ‘home’ state, to even bother about the matter much less take such draconian measures as deportation.
I think we’ve already said how easy it is (in normal life) to show where one has been… and when… thus, no problems…
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I would only add to that… mountains and molehills
So do you think the French authorities would concern themselves with an investigation of a visa matter which was only of interest to another country? I don’t. Also, not everyone is a hoarder, like me, my life is an open book regarding receipts and such and in any case no matter how many receipts you have proving being in France, it still doesn’t prove that you have not made multiple trips across the border without an exit stamp.
No… I don’t think anyone is going to concern themselves with an investigation… etc… etc…
Perhaps someone might be questionned during a random check… as happens nowadays… at roadsides etc etc…
and unless one gives the questionner good-cause for doubts… such “checks” are done and dusted… and “have a nice day!!”
to be brutally honest David, this topic is done as far as I’m concerned. Done to death.
I’m sure the OP has the answer sought.
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In Spain yes, but the French gendarmes don’t check your Spanish visa do they? Why would they if you are in France?
Anyway, Gill the aide, has just left and she said 2 very different things. Firstly she is certain that with a French CdS you can travel anywhere in the EU totally visaless without let or hindrance as they say. The other is that new applicants for a French CdS have to pass a language test first.
I think I know the answer to the first, but what about the second? I think it has been brought up here before so, is it true? I can’t remember. 
Yes, but if you had got the trainee on duty that day, it could have been a different story.
Robert’s right, but that’s what there is to worry about
Is this the 5 minute argument or the full half-hour?
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I can’t find anywhere that it says that new applicants must have a level of French for a CdS, but
But, this from a French government website regarding exemptions for the need for visas in other Schengen countries for CdS holders:
All foreign nationals require a visa to enter the Schengen area unless exempt.
This exemption depends on:
The nationality of the applicant; The type of passport; Whether the traveller has a residence permit or a long-stay visa valid in France or a State that applies the Schengen accords;
Frankly @David_Spardo I think this thread has morphed into a bit of a monster…
The original question has been answered… and we’ve taken various detours since then.
even so… everything has been covered, as far as I can see…
although I can’t understand why you’re now talking about Spanish visas…
cheers
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