Has Anyone Dealt With Customs In Paris/france Before?

[Ridgehiker]

The Royaume du Maroc and France have a special cultural relationship. The academies in France have overseen the paleontology and archaeological studies in Morocco. The export of Vertebrate material, modern or fossilized out of Morocco is not permitted without documentation. The onus is on you to provide documentation and a reason for possession of the material. The onus is not on Customs to provide a reason why they can seize it. However, they don't exist to be unreasonable. If you have proper documentation from Morocco then they should release the material to you.

It doesn't appear that you have documentation so You will unlikely be successful in pursuing this further in a judicial hearing.

When I go through any customs I always have a lot of info. I have photocopies of paleo literature, maps , etc. I can show where a specimen is from. Again, it's up to me to prove the legitimacy of taking a fossil out of a country...not up to customs why I can't.

If I don't have all the info and don't want to lose a specimen, I mail it to myself. I never put 'fossils' on the custom slip. I put 'education material for study' and in the value section also write 'education material, no value'.

[Han.T]

The Royaume du Maroc and France have a special cultural relationship. The academies in France have overseen the paleontology and archaeological studies in Morocco. The export of Vertebrate material, modern or fossilized out of Morocco is not permitted without documentation. The onus is on you to provide documentation and a reason for possession of the material. The onus is not on Customs to provide a reason why they can seize it. However, they don't exist to be unreasonable. If you have proper documentation from Morocco then they should release the material to you.

It doesn't appear that you have documentation so You will unlikely be successful in pursuing this further in a judicial hearing.

When I go through any customs I always have a lot of info. I have photocopies of paleo literature, maps , etc. I can show where a specimen is from. Again, it's up to me to prove the legitimacy of taking a fossil out of a country...not up to customs why I can't.

If I don't have all the info and don't want to lose a specimen, I mail it to myself. I never put 'fossils' on the custom slip. I put 'education material for study' and in the value section also write 'education material, no value'.

I was actually thinking of posting the mosasaur fossil back from Amsterdam but we ran out of time there. Unfortunately I always assumed that Moroccan fossils are legal for export prior to this incident; not everyone has the foreknowledge like you to obtain official documents for every fossil they acquire. Some things we take for granted I guess, lesson learnt! Even my non-vertebrate material didn't make the cut by the way.

[MeargleSchmeargl]

That is really a bummer. Possibly find a lawyer?

[Coco]

Han, Canadawest is right about the subject of documents. They ask for the official documents saying that your fossils are not deceitfully exported and announce the incurred prison sentences...

You can use this to translate little part of text, could be helpful : http://www.lexilogos.com/traduction_multilingue.htm

Coco