I always try to take a photo of the plane before I get on, just for my collection, and to get the tail number for my logbook. Last month, at CDG T1, I started to do this, and two security guards (they were manning the security checkpoint, which was right at the gate) came running over, yelling "no photos!" in French and English. So I put my camera away, although I was peeved since I the plane I was about to board was UA's Star Alliance livery 767 , which I'd never been on.

So I went through security, and while those guys were distracted, I managed to snap a photo unobserved from the actual gate seating area. Later, I figured that they were trying to tell me photography in/of the security checkpoint was prohibited, not of the aircraft/tarmac.

Does anyone know about the rules at CDG, and what the story is?