You bought the stone house in the Dordogne before Brexit, or after it, and you now live between two countries: most of the year in Britain, long stretches in France. Since 1 January 2021 you travel as a third-country national, and the question that controls everything is brutally simple: how many days may you spend in France, and in the rest of the Schengen area, without a visa? The answer is the 90/180-day rule, counted backwards over a rolling 180-day window, and British second-home owners are the group it punishes most. Stay one day too long and you become an overstayer: refused entry at the border, an obligation de quitter le territoire français (OQTF, the formal order to leave France), a possible ban on returning, and a mark in the Schengen Information System that follows every later trip. This guide explains, for a British reader, how the count works now that passports are stamped and the new Entry/Exit System (EES) records your movements electronically, what an overstay costs in practice, which long-stay visa or residence card lets you spend more than 90 days at your own house, and how to challenge a refusal of entry, a visa refusal or an OQTF before the French courts. French legal terms are explained the first time they appear.
I. How the 90/180-day rule counts your stays in your French second home
A. How many days can you spend in France without a visa, and how is the rolling 180-day period calculated?
As a British citizen you are visa-exempt for short stays in the Schengen area. That does not mean 90 days per trip or 90 days per calendar year. It means no more than 90 days of presence in the whole Schengen area during any 180-day period. Every day you are physically present counts: the day you arrive counts, the day you leave counts, and days spent in Spain, Italy or Greece on the way home count against the same allowance, because the allowance is Schengen-wide, not France-only. Days spent in Ireland do not count, because Ireland is outside Schengen; days spent in Britain do not count either.
The French administration states the rule plainly on service-public.fr: which confirms that short stays are capped at 90 days in the Schengen area within any 180-day period, whether in one trip or several, and that the holder must leave the Schengen area when that maximum is reached. The British government says the same thing from the other side of the Channel: GOV.UK’s France travel advice, in its entry requirements for France, and the European Union’s Your Europe page for non-EU nationals, both confirm that British travellers may spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area without a visa. When the three sources agree, you can rely on the rule.
French statute law points you to the same European rule. Article L312-1 of the CESEDA (Code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile, the French code governing entry and residence of foreign nationals) provides: « Tout étranger souhaitant entrer en France en vue d’y séjourner pour une durée n’excédant pas trois mois doit solliciter auprès des autorités diplomatiques et consulaires françaises un visa de court séjour, dans les conditions prévues à l’article 6 du règlement 2016/399 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 9 mars 2016. » Article 6 of that Regulation, the Schengen Borders Code, sets the famous entry conditions, including the 90/180-day maximum. British citizens are dispensed from the visa itself, but not from the 90-day ceiling: the ceiling is the condition on which visa-free entry is granted.
The counting method is the part that traps second-home owners. The 180-day window is rolling, not fixed. On any given day — today, the day you land at Bergerac, the day a border officer checks you at Calais — you look backwards over the previous 180 days and add up every day of Schengen presence. If the total is 90 or fewer, you are lawful; if it would reach 91, you must leave. A practical example: you spend all of April and May in your Dordogne house (61 days), return to Kent for June, then come back on 1 July. On 1 July the officer looks back to early January; your 61 spring days are inside the window, so you have 29 days left. If you then stay July and August (62 days), you breach the ceiling in early August even though no single stay exceeded three months. Spending winter in Britain does not « reset » anything until old days slide out of the window.
Second-home owners make three systematic errors. First, they count per trip: « I only stayed 60 days this time » while forgetting 40 days in Spain two months earlier. Second, they count per country: days in France plus days in Portugal are added together, because the allowance is shared across the whole Schengen area. Third, they count per calendar year: the rule knows no 1 January reset. Keep a single running calendar of every entry and exit, for every Schengen country, with the running 180-day total. The European Commission publishes a short-stay calculator; use it before booking each trip, and keep boarding passes and receipts so you can prove your count if a stamp is blurred or missing.
Paris practice note: if your pattern is always the same — spring and autumn in France, summers and Christmas in Britain — map the whole year in advance against the rolling window, not trip by trip. Two stays of 80 days separated by only 30 days in Britain already break the ceiling, because 160 days fall inside one 180-day window. Either lengthen the gap in Britain or move to a long-stay visa before the second trip.
B. How are your days proved at the border — passport stamps, the Entry/Exit System, and what to do when the record is wrong?
Since Brexit your passport should be stamped on every entry into and exit from the Schengen area. The stamp is evidence, and missing stamps cause real disputes: an entry stamp without a matching exit stamp makes the next officer presume you never left. Check your passport at the booth, there and then, and ask for the missing stamp on the spot if the officer forgot. Keep every boarding pass, Eurotunnel and ferry booking confirmation, and fuel or toll receipt until the corresponding stamp pair is safely in the passport.
Stamps are now backed by electronics. The EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES), which started operating for British and other third-country nationals during 2025, records your facial image, fingerprints for most travellers, and the date and place of each entry and exit. When EES covers your crossing point, the computer holds the count even if the ink is smudged. That cuts both ways: it protects you when a stamp is missing, and it exposes you when you hoped a missing exit stamp would hide extra days. Assume from now on that the border knows exactly how long you stayed.
If the record is wrong, correct it fast. A missing exit stamp can be fixed by showing the border police your boarding pass and booking confirmations for that departure; a wrong EES record can be disputed with the same documents. Do this before the next trip, not at the next booth with a queue behind you. If you are stopped and the officer says the system shows an overstay, stay calm, show your documents in order, and ask for the decision in writing with reasons — you will need that paper for any challenge.
A refusal of entry at the border (refus d’entrée) is different from an expulsion from inside France. The administrative court of appeal in Nantes restated the boundary in a decision of 9 June 2026, CAA Nantes, 1st chamber, No 26NT00201: « dès lors qu’un étranger qui n’est pas ressortissant d’un pays membre de l’Union européenne se trouve en zone aéroportuaire, en transit ou en zone d’attente, il peut faire l’objet d’un refus d’entrée mais non d’une obligation de quitter le territoire français, ne pouvant être regardé comme entré sur le territoire français. » In plain terms: at the airport transit or holding area you can be refused entry and sent back, but you cannot yet be given an OQTF, because in law you have not entered France. Once you pass the booths and live in your house, the OQTF becomes the instrument instead.
The same decision quotes the OQTF provision that will matter in the second half of this guide, Article L611-1 of the CESEDA: « L’autorité administrative peut obliger un étranger à quitter le territoire français lorsqu’il se trouve dans les cas suivants : 1° L’étranger, ne pouvant justifier être entré régulièrement sur le territoire français, s’y est maintenu sans être titulaire d’un titre de séjour en cours de validité ; […] » Keep that paragraph in mind: every overstay case is built on it.
Paris practice note: travel with a one-page « border folder » — passport, printed calendar of your last 180 days with the running total, return ticket, proof of address of the French house, health insurance, and bank statement. Border officers decide in minutes; a tidy folder turns a suspicion of overstay into a two-minute check. For the breakdown of which long-stay visa and which residence card general newcomers use once 90 days are not enough, our companion guide on which long-stay visa and which carte de séjour a British newcomer needs sets the wider frame this article now applies to second-home owners.
II. What an overstay risks, how to stay longer lawfully, and how to challenge a refusal or removal order
A. What happens if you stay past 90 days — OQTF, departure deadlines, return bans, and how judges review them?
The moment your 91st day inside the window begins, your stay is unlawful, even if you own the house outright and pay the taxe foncière (the French local property tax on owners). Unlawful presence exposes you to the OQTF, the written order by the préfet (the state representative in each département, the local administrative authority) obliging you to leave France. Article L611-1 of the CESEDA lists the cases, and the overstay case is paragraph 2: « L’étranger, entré sur le territoire français sous couvert d’un visa désormais expiré ou, n’étant pas soumis à l’obligation du visa, entré en France plus de trois mois auparavant, s’est maintenu sur le territoire français sans être titulaire d’un titre de séjour ou, le cas échéant, sans demander le renouvellement du titre de séjour temporaire ou pluriannuel qui lui a été délivré ; » As a visa-exempt Briton, you fall squarely in the second half of that sentence once you pass three months without a residence document.
The courts apply that paragraph routinely. In CAA Lyon, 18 January 2022, No 21LY00666, the judges upheld an OQTF against a man who, holding an Algerian passport with a short-stay visa that had expired, in the court’s words « muni de son passeport algérien revêtu d’un visa de court séjour, périmé depuis le 7 août 2018, s’est maintenu en situation irrégulière sur le territoire français après expiration de son visa ». The reasoning transfers directly to a British overstayer: lawful entry followed by unlawful presence after the authorised period ends. Owning property, paying local taxes and having a return ticket do not cure the irregularity; only a valid visa, residence document or departure does.
An OQTF normally gives you 30 days to leave voluntarily (délai de départ volontaire). Article L612-1 of the CESEDA provides: « L’étranger faisant l’objet d’une décision portant obligation de quitter le territoire français dispose d’un délai de départ volontaire de trente jours à compter de la notification de cette décision. » The same article allows the préfet to grant more than thirty days in exceptional circumstances. In genuine overstay cases the order is often issued without delay (OQTF sans délai), for example after a police check, which means you must leave immediately and can be placed in administrative detention or escorted to the border. Read the order: the box ticked for the departure deadline decides your timetable for challenge.
Every OQTF must be reasoned and individual. Article L613-1 of the CESEDA states: « La décision portant obligation de quitter le territoire français est motivée. Elle est édictée après vérification du droit au séjour, en tenant notamment compte de la durée de présence de l’étranger sur le territoire français, de la nature et de l’ancienneté de ses liens avec la France et des considérations humanitaires pouvant justifier un tel droit. » A one-line order that ignores your ten-year ownership of the house, your family ties or a serious illness can be annulled for defective reasoning. The order may also add a ban on returning to France (interdiction de retour, commonly one to three years) and fix the country of destination; both must carry their own reasons.
Beyond the paper order, the practical costs bite fast. An entry refusal or OQTF is entered in French files and can generate a Schengen-wide alert, so the next arrival in France, Spain or the Netherlands triggers secondary inspection. Overstayers caught working, even remotely for a British employer from the French house, add a separate ground under Article L611-1. Travel insurance may refuse medical cover for the unlawful period. And a recorded overstay damages every later visa application, because the consulate asks about previous irregular stay and checks the files.
How do you challenge? An OQTF with a 30-day deadline is challenged before the administrative court (tribunal administratif) within 30 days; an OQTF without delay must be challenged within 48 hours, and detention decisions within similarly short windows, so instruct a lawyer the same day. Ask the judge to annul the OQTF, the departure deadline, the return ban and the country designation, and to suspend enforcement meanwhile where the procedure allows. Strong arguments in second-home cases include: miscounted days (prove with stamps, EES extracts, boarding passes that the 91st day had not been reached), a pending long-stay or Withdrawal Agreement application that gave a right to remain, defective reasoning under Article L613-1, and disproportionality where decades of lawful ownership and family life in France outweigh a short, good-faith overshoot. Attach everything: the 180-day calendar, all travel proofs, the house deeds, tax bills, insurance and family documents.
Paris practice note: never ignore an OQTF and « finish the summer ». Leaving late voluntarily within the deadline preserves future visas; being removed under escort or discovered at the airport with an expired order invites a return ban. If the deadline is impossibly short because of a medical appointment or a house completion, apply in writing to the préfecture (the local state administrative office) for an extension under Article L612-1 before the deadline expires, and keep proof of posting.
B. How can you lawfully spend more than 90 days at your French house — long-stay visas, the visitor card, and challenging a refusal?
If your life needs more than 90 days in any 180 — a full summer plus Christmas, renovation works, or simply half the year in France — the lawful answer is a long-stay visa followed by the matching residence document, applied for from Britain before you travel. Article L312-2 of the CESEDA sets the principle: « Tout étranger souhaitant entrer en France en vue d’y séjourner pour une durée supérieure à trois mois doit solliciter auprès des autorités diplomatiques et consulaires françaises un visa de long séjour dont la durée de validité ne peut être supérieure à un an. » The same article explains that the visa can authorise stays « en qualité de visiteur », among other grounds, and confer the rights of a temporary or multi-year residence card.
For retired or financially independent second-home owners, the standard route is the long-stay visitor visa (visa de long séjour visiteur) leading to the visitor residence card (carte de séjour temporaire mention visiteur). Article L426-20 of the CESEDA describes exactly who gets that card: « L’étranger qui apporte la preuve qu’il peut vivre de ses seules ressources, dont le montant doit être au moins égal au salaire minimum de croissance net annuel, […] se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” visiteur ” d’une durée d’un an. Il doit en outre justifier de la possession d’une assurance maladie couvrant la durée de son séjour et prendre l’engagement de n’exercer en France aucune activité professionnelle. » Three conditions, no discretion on the principle: yearly resources at least at the net minimum-wage level, full-duration health insurance, and a written undertaking not to work in France. The France-Visas frequently asked questions page, France-Visas FAQ, lists the supporting documents consulates expect for this category.
Two satellite rules complete the picture. First, anyone staying over three months must hold a residence document at all: Article L411-1 of the CESEDA provides that « tout étranger âgé de plus de dix-huit ans qui souhaite séjourner en France pour une durée supérieure à trois mois doit être titulaire de l’un des documents de séjour suivants : 1° Un visa de long séjour ; […] 3° Une carte de séjour temporaire ; […] » Second, the first card is only issued on a long-stay visa: Article L412-1 of the CESEDA states that « la première délivrance d’une carte de séjour temporaire ou d’une carte de séjour pluriannuelle est subordonnée à la production par l’étranger du visa de long séjour mentionné aux 1° ou 2° de l’article L. 411-1. » You cannot arrive visa-free, decide to stay six months, and regularise at the préfecture as a visitor: the long-stay visa must be obtained from the French consulate in Britain first. The famous long-stay visa that acts as a residence card (visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour, VLS-TS) must then be validated online within three months of arrival and, for the visitor route, is renewed as a card.
Prepare the visitor file as a banker would. Twelve months of bank statements showing stable resources above the threshold, pension letters, the house deeds or lease, a full year of comprehensive health cover with no gaps or caps below consular expectations, and the signed no-work undertaking. Couples need two files: each spouse applies individually, including each holding insurance. Anyone planning remote work for a British employer from the French house should not use the visitor route at all — the no-work undertaking forbids it — and should seek advice on the correct work-authorised status instead.
If the consulate refuses the visa, or the préfecture later refuses the visitor card or its renewal, you have remedies. First, ask for the written reasons; an unreasoned refusal is already vulnerable. Second, file a recours gracieux (an informal appeal asking the same authority to reconsider) and a recours hiérarchique (appeal to the higher authority, typically the Ministry of the Interior for visas) within two months, attaching the missing or corrected documents. Third, challenge before the administrative court within two months of the express or implied refusal: for a visa refusal, before the Nantes administrative court which hears consular litigation; for a card refusal, usually with an accompanying OQTF, before the local tribunal administratif. Judges annul refusals for error of law (wrong threshold applied), manifest error of assessment (stable resources misread as insufficient), and defective reasoning. A spouse-of-French-national case benefits from an even stronger shield — Article L312-3 of the CESEDA provides that « Le visa de long séjour est délivré de plein droit au conjoint de ressortissant français. Il ne peut être refusé qu’en cas de fraude, d’annulation du mariage ou de menace à l’ordre public. » — but ordinary second-home owners win on files, not status: complete, consistent paper wins.
Paris and Île-de-France note: many British second-home owners land at Paris airports and spend their first nights in the capital before driving south. If you intend to apply for the visitor card while already renting in Paris, do not: the first long-stay visa application is made in Britain, and the first card application goes to the préfecture of your French home address. Keep a Paris proof of address only for the nights genuinely spent there; the file lives where the house is. Allow three to four months between the consulate appointment and the planned move, because summer slots fill and any request for extra documents stops the clock.
Conclusion
Count every Schengen day in one rolling calendar, keep the proofs that correct stamps and EES records, leave before day 91 or secure a long-stay visa and visitor card from Britain first, and challenge any refusal of entry, visa refusal or OQTF in writing and within the short deadlines with a complete file. The 90-day ceiling is strict, but it is also predictable: owners who measure their year against the rolling window, insure and fund a proper visitor application when they need more time, and answer each administrative decision with dated evidence keep their French house a pleasure rather than a procedure.