Agreed. It was the French Embassy in London who advised my partner and helped arrange it. There wasn’t any suggestion intended on my part that it wasn’t legit.
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It is/was recommended for example, for business travellers for a number of years, if you made visits to either Israel or some of the Gulf or Persian states, as an entry stamp from one often meant you were refused entry on that same passport into the other.
But it does make you feel like a secret agent when deciding which one to use!
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only if they’re in different names… surely ??? 
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Blimey, I never realised how lucky we were to be living here since the '90s, I can’t imagine having to go through all that rigmarole now.
I do feel sympathy for @Jovis though, quite apart from that. Given his work which takes him away, not just from home but from country, might be quite difficult to arrange depending on how much notice of interview etc. is given.
About the 2 passports thing. I presume that that is with the same nationality? That seems as much of a nono to me (though I accept what has been said) as me receiving a tut tut from a gendarme when he discovered I had 2 driving permis. Strictly illegal. Also, it certainly wasn’t suggested by the Paris Embassy when I was working as an international driver. I phoned them to ask how quick it would be as I could be called on to cross a frontier at a moments notice. The unhelpful reply was ‘get your boss to give you different work’. Fortunately I wasn’t asked to go to England, only other Schengen countries and it was never asked for.
For the next passport I made sure and arranged in advance for an immediate issue at Peterborough and went there in person.
Aside from having dial or even tri nationality with passports and citizenship of different countries (with associated advantages and disadvantages of falling between stools), you can have 2 UK passports:
Sadly, same name. And you must enter and exit countries on the same passport
I think that was the issue in my friend’s case…
I’ve held dual nationality all my life and learned early that immigration checkers rarely smile so it’s best to be faultless
Sorry, gotta be honest, “there you go again”. I promise you my intentions are simply to point out where you may accidentally be giving an incorrect impression…
er…you’ve just said “, being principally tied to Spain” as your position in the relevant period.
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Intersting one that. I’m going to the UK with my kids soon (first time in over 3 years) and the first time where they will use a UK passport to go there, and me a French ID card to come back… my thinking was that it’d get round the non-UK bit going there and non-EU bit coming back, no cheating, just using the most suitable ID required at the relevant border. Am I missing something…? 
Always a problem on our business. Had we had Israel stamps in our passports we would have to have abandoned the last job we did having arrived in Cyprus ex Turkey and France because our destination was Lebanon.
Brexit made life as a seaman far more complicated as we now have to plead for a shore pass rather than be stamped in to an EU country.
That would be fine except that I don’t think you will be able to use your French ID for the departure from UK (if that was what you meant) - only on return to France where they might still require the same travel document you used for departure… but you would be able to use the EU gate of course…
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Susannah, Thank. you. We shall go through the process. We are lucky enough to own outright our French property albeit that we shall sell it and buy another so the rest is down to Cosmic Wheels, which side of the bed our civil servants got out of, whether they are having a good day, quotas and if they like us as far as I can see. The only other way is to buy a yacht and a French berth, register it in the UK or dependency and sign on as crew - captain in my case - but Shore passes typically come with caveats precluding travelling out of the local jurisdiction. I jest of course. Too extreme but at worst I could do the 90 days and 90 elsewhere if I had to. Beirut is pretty cool.
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I think dual nationals are supposed to use the passport that matches the country. So you use Uk passports to travel in and out of UK, and French ID to travel in and out of France. Don’t have a source for that, but no doubt there is something available.
Sort of hope so as we we probably pop over to Spain in next few days, and I only have French ID with me.
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You do that because it is easier but you don’t actually have to, it just speeds things up.
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Actually you do, I HAVE to leave and depart from the UK on my UK passport and ditto to and from Oz. In between I often pull both out! We smuggled our newborn into the UK on his Aussie passport (crossing fingers they wouldn’t deport him!) and went straight to Liverpool for a UK passport. They let us through but we got tutted at!
- Modern passports hold biometric data providing strong security, it is possible immigration officers know about passports with different nationalities.
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Depends on the country.
For instance, Canada requires a Canadian passport holder enters and exits their country using the Canadian passport, no matter what others they hold or how long you have been away.
However, once exited you can switch to, for example, a UK passport mid flight to enter France having just flown Vancouver-Paris.
Countries keep a record of the comings and goings so there would be flashing lights above you if you try to exit using a different document than the one with which you entered.
In addition to any other ID, always have your passport/passports safely with you. What if an emergency occurs or there is an unexpected change of travel plan? Hang on to your identity!
Which is the same as I said ….? Entry/exit match country & passport if you are able, after that you do as you wish.