Weird interaction with France border control

Hi!

I recently had a weird interaction entering France at CDG during COVID when border is restricted.

I'm a Chinese passport holder, my wife is a French citizen. Our marriage is registered in France and we have our livret de famille. I have a valid 90-day multi-entry Schengen Visa issued by Sweden because I used to go to Sweden often for work and it was my primary destination whenever I visited the EU in the last few years. To my knowledge, there's no requirement to apply a separate Schengen Visa as long as it's still valid even though France would be my primary destination on this trip instead of Sweden.

The officer at the boarder control at CDG was giving me a really hard time saying that I can only be in France for 2 days because it was issued by Sweden. My wife and I went back and forth with the officer and said what if a book a flight to Sweden now, and enter from Sweden to France. Eventually, she let me through after the office next to her was like 'let it go, not worth getting into it' but threatened that if the police finds me in France after 2 days, I will be sent back to China. The language used was aggressive and unnecessary plus I'm a US resident.

Prior to the trip, my wife had called the French Consulate in the US to check, they even said no visa is required, we just need our livret de famille (which doesn't sound believable but maybe it was because they have paused the visa applications because of COVID).

I just wanted to check if anyone knows of such rules or was she just giving us a hard time for no reason.

Thanks!

Hello,

This doesn't surprise me from the guys at CDG. Profiling, rudeness and causing troubles are the norm.

Just forget about their empty threats. Millions of people live and work in France without a single documents but, for some reason, authorities like to give hard time to people with everything in order. They often make fuss when you enter France with a Schengen visa issued by another country. This defies the whole purpose of Schengen.

You can't enter with the "Livret de Famille" in France even if the spouse shown in there is French. They won't even let you board.

Nobody will deport you in 2 days. Just relax and enjoy your family time.

The reason why you had a hard time at the custom is very simple.
Schengen visas given under EU rules to visit a third countries (Sweden) aren't valid to visit the country of your EU spouse (French).
In that case, French Laws apply and you need to have a visa delivered by the French authorities.
You can't bring your non EU spouse to France with only the 'livret de famille' either.
All information is available on the French consulate website. They will ask all information about you, nationality of your spouse, reason of trip, etc. Then they will tell you what documents are necessary to apply. It is a free visa but they might need more documents than what is required under EU rules.
The same rules apply to all EU citizens bringing their non EU spouse to their home country.