I just received an email from a friend which deals with passport and border control issues in France:

Subject: Fwd: FW: Passport problem

Note: This one has been around before but is still good...

An elderly gentleman of 83 arrived in Paris by plane.

At the French customs desk, the man took a few minutes to locate his
passport in his carry-on bag.

"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked, sarcastically.

The gentleman admitted he had been to France previously.

"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!"

The old American gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944
to help liberate this country, there weren't any Frenchmen around to
show it to."

France's rubber stamp wielders lost control of the borders, of course, when France lost the 30-day so-called "Battle for France."

Moral lesson, if any?

A rubber stamp is only as strong as the country which wields it. (Or, I suppose, a country which defeats it.)