My sister married a French native many years ago. They live in the USA now, but have all their in-laws over there in France still. Their part of France is near the border of Spain. I have spoken to my brother-in-law many times about tagging along with him some day, when they do their every-other-year or so return trip, so I can get some detecting in 
The recent post about detecting in Spain (even on innocuous beaches, for apparently modern beach-goer losses) had me thinking. Without going back in to the issue of Spain, or having someone dig up dire sounding rules about France, I would instead like to use a closer-by example, as a test-subject: Mexico
Back in the early 1980s, Fisher had a periodical mailer that went out every so often. In it, was a Q&A column, where people could address questions to the editor. One question, in one edition, was a person stating they were getting ready to vacation to a tourist beach in Mexico, and wondered if they were allowed to bring their metal detectors. The editor, in their answer to this question, had a few paragraphs entitled something to the effect: "When travelling to Mexico, leave the detectors at home". The answer went on to detail how it was illegal to detect in Mexico, blah blah blah.
In the subsequent editions of this same periodical, others wrote in to the Q&A column to take exception to this answer. They wrote things like "since when??" and "who told you this?", or "we've gone there for years, always hitting the beaches, and never had a problem", etc.... Fisher, in order to address those that took exception to their answer, gave the following reply followup: When they had received the earlier inquiry, they merely contacted a Mexican consulate border bureaucrat type, and ASKED! doh (I mean, who better to ask ....... than Mexico themselves, right?
) They merely re-printed the answer they were given, in their periodical.
What was odd, to some at the time (and still to this day), is that metal detectors are a common site on tourist beaches. In fact, all the major detector manufacturers have dealers down in the bigger cities down there ...... INCLUDING FISHER!
All I can figure is, whomever the lawyer person Fisher forwarded the question to in Mexico, must've couched their answer in terms of antiquities laws, exporting valuables & antiquities, historic monuments & pryamaids type no-no's, shipwreck salvor laws, etc.... But obviously, for casual beach-goer type losses, it obviously is/was of no concern. I myself crossed the border, at Juarez (El Paso) to hunt land sites, back in the 1990s. We got stopped at the border, and when the border patrol saw our detectors, he asked "what's that?" My interprettor just told him "pasa-tiempo" ("a hobby to pass time"). The border patrol just shrugged his shoulders, and waved us through.
Anyhow, ever since then, when I see other citations, of countries where people say "you can't do that there", but then I see that those countries have hobbyist forums, dealers, etc... I sometimes wonder if it isn't the same thing as this Mexico example?
The recent post about detecting in Spain (even on innocuous beaches, for apparently modern beach-goer losses) had me thinking. Without going back in to the issue of Spain, or having someone dig up dire sounding rules about France, I would instead like to use a closer-by example, as a test-subject: MexicoBack in the early 1980s, Fisher had a periodical mailer that went out every so often. In it, was a Q&A column, where people could address questions to the editor. One question, in one edition, was a person stating they were getting ready to vacation to a tourist beach in Mexico, and wondered if they were allowed to bring their metal detectors. The editor, in their answer to this question, had a few paragraphs entitled something to the effect: "When travelling to Mexico, leave the detectors at home". The answer went on to detail how it was illegal to detect in Mexico, blah blah blah.
In the subsequent editions of this same periodical, others wrote in to the Q&A column to take exception to this answer. They wrote things like "since when??" and "who told you this?", or "we've gone there for years, always hitting the beaches, and never had a problem", etc.... Fisher, in order to address those that took exception to their answer, gave the following reply followup: When they had received the earlier inquiry, they merely contacted a Mexican consulate border bureaucrat type, and ASKED! doh (I mean, who better to ask ....... than Mexico themselves, right?
) They merely re-printed the answer they were given, in their periodical.What was odd, to some at the time (and still to this day), is that metal detectors are a common site on tourist beaches. In fact, all the major detector manufacturers have dealers down in the bigger cities down there ...... INCLUDING FISHER!
All I can figure is, whomever the lawyer person Fisher forwarded the question to in Mexico, must've couched their answer in terms of antiquities laws, exporting valuables & antiquities, historic monuments & pryamaids type no-no's, shipwreck salvor laws, etc.... But obviously, for casual beach-goer type losses, it obviously is/was of no concern. I myself crossed the border, at Juarez (El Paso) to hunt land sites, back in the 1990s. We got stopped at the border, and when the border patrol saw our detectors, he asked "what's that?" My interprettor just told him "pasa-tiempo" ("a hobby to pass time"). The border patrol just shrugged his shoulders, and waved us through.
Anyhow, ever since then, when I see other citations, of countries where people say "you can't do that there", but then I see that those countries have hobbyist forums, dealers, etc... I sometimes wonder if it isn't the same thing as this Mexico example?
HAPPY DETECTING