Hi. I am travelling from the Uk across Europe withny wife for 6 months. My wife has an EU passport so I can legally stay in Europe for that period. I have a UK passport. The French border officer insisted on stamping my passport. He would not listen to us when we tried to explain that he shouldnt do this! How will this affect our travelling?
It won’t.
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Why do you believe this to be the case?
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If you are not a French resident who showed the French Border officer your CdS alongside your U.K. passport, the officer was correct in stamping your passport with an entry stamp.
Actually, he/she is perfectly entitled to do so.
From this document published by the EU Commission:
“EU law does not prevent border guards from stamping upon entry to and exit from the Schengen area of
travel documents of United Kingdom nationals who are beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement who
are in possession of a valid residence permit issued by a Schengen Member State. The same applies to
their family members in the same situation.”
If you are not a beneficiary of the Withdrawal Agreement, with residency in a EU state, this is even perfectly normal when entering the Schengen zone, as a third country national.
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Hello @Davidreed113 and welcome to the forum.
You do not say what documents you have to support your visit to Europe…
but… no matter 
…
As others have said… the stamping of your UK passport on entering France… is quite in order… and shouldn’t cause you any difficulties.
Enjoy your trip…
(the subject of “stamping” has already been thrashed about on the forum… with the final result being “no problem, no matter what one’s situation”…
It was correct that your passport was stamped. It means you are currently allowed to stay in EU without visa for 90 days.
Longer than that will require a visa for a UK passport holder who is not currently holding an EU country residence permit.
“Check your passport is stamped if you enter or exit the Schengen area through France as a visitor. Border guards will use passport stamps to check you’re complying with the 90-day visa-free limit for short stays in the Schengen area. If relevant entry or exit stamps are not in your passport, border guards will presume that you have overstayed your visa-free limit.“
You do not say which country your wife is a passport carrying national of but in her own country their national rules apply for visitors. If this is France, and you want to stay longer than 90 days, you should apply online for a long stay visa.
https://france-visas.gouv.fr/en/brexit
“British citizens, married to EU nationals, wishing to settle or reside more than 90 days in France (at the same time as their spouse or rejoining him/her) will not require a settlement visa (pursuant to the EU Directive 2004/38).
**Note, the UK passport holder married to an EU passport holder does not need to apply for a settlement visa but…
“As of the 1st of January 2021, UK citizens will need a Long-Stay visa if staying in France or in a French Oversea territory for more than 90 days whatever the purpose of stay (work, studies, ICT, Au Pairing, passport talent, visitor, family reunification, family members of French nationals, etc.).
“Third country nationals and family members of UK citizens no longer apply for visas as ‘family members of EU nationals’ (unless your UK family member benefited from the withdrawal agreement and lives in France). You are subject to the rules set by the Community Code on Visas (CCV) for short stays: you will need to pay the visa and service fees and provide all documents as per the purpose of your stay in France. Those who wish to move to France will have to apply for a Long-Stay visa.”
It would be wise to clearly check your official position rather than be at risk of overstaying and having a rather alarming meeting with France immigration officials at border control when you leave in 6 month’s time. 
https://france-visas.gouv.fr/web/france-visas/sejour-touristique-ou-prive
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I don’t think that’s quite correct as the spouse of an EU citizen, unless they’re staying in a single EU country, and the OP says they’re traveling across Europe.
For travel through EU the UK national will need a Schengen visa, type D for long-term
I think that having an EU passport holding spouse no longer entitles a third country national to long-term stays without a visa. Visibility is the aim of border controls. Having an EU spouse may speed up the visa issuance and carries no fee.
Without any type of visa, UK nationals without EU residency are subject to Schengen 90 day rule.
Susannah
The situation you cite (“I’m not a citizen of a Schengen country and I want to visit my boyfriend etc who lives there”) is not the same as, say, a British national traveling around in the company of their EU national spouse.
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Anyone accompanying an EU spouse would be well advised to carry their marriage certificate, though.
reading an article in LinkedIn… it seems a good idea to have passport stamps (In and Out) to prove that the 90- days visit in any one Schengen country has not been over-run (by the non-EU spouse of an EU person …)
Found this on the Europa.eu site.
So basically the spouse of an EU national can spend up to 90 days in each EU country and is not subject to the 90 days in any 180 day period rule.
Length of stay
If your non-EU family members have the required documents, they are entitled to accompany or join you without any conditions or formalities for consecutive periods of up to 3 months per EU country visited. They are not subject to the overall limitation of up to 90 days in a 180-day period that applies in the Schengen area. You can combine stays in different EU countries without an overall time-limit (as long as the conditions of the EU rules on residence are met).
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Best to check if there is a different requirement for a UK passport holder who is resident in UK visiting EU with an EU national who is not currently resident in EU. This is tourism, not residence.
It may be wisest to err on the side of caution and obtain a (free for EU spouse) Schengen visa. Not all border controls may be up to date, and how much stress do you want to endure?
Am pretty sure the EU national spouse doesn’t have to be resident in the EU.
I know a few Anglo-Irish couples who live in the UK and have had no issues as long as they travel together and stay together for the duration of the trip.
This implies that there is a time limit, even if it’s a fairly generous one, so stamping the passport on entry to determine when the “3 months per country” begins would seem to be necessary?
Since there are no border controls within the Schengen Zone I’m not sure how they would know which EU countries they had variously spent 3 months in, but that’s another question!!
If you think about it, the stamping on entry to determine when the 90-say period starts is pretty pointless in many cases because, as you point out, there’s no way to know whether a person has stayed in, say, France for 90 days. They could have popped over to Germany for a few weeks.
the first stamp… is the starting point for any future investigations… which might or might not arise.
And, as has been mentioned elsewhere on the forum, should one’s right to be “wherever” come into question… having some proof (passport stamps/ receipts/whatever) can be useful to show one has not overstayed… wherever…
Just to say that I arrived back from the UK this morning and handed over my CDS with my british passport as the officials were stamping UK passports but upon seeing my card, she did not need to do it. You must tell them not to stamp it and show them your card which I also did on the way out as they asked for proof I had one!
welcome back home…
The visiting person who feels their passport was stamped in error… does not seem to have a CDS/Visa of any sort … just an EU spouse… … thus they will need to prove how long they’ve been visiting in an EU country… if they are officially asked… and the stamp is the first step.