I moved to France last year and Im still waiting for my titre de sejour, I have a valid récépisse and I know this is not a valid document to travel (back) to France. I have (after asking more than a few times if this was ok) however already booked and paid for an expensive trip inside of the Schengen area that is to take place very soon. The people at the préfecture have now washed their hands and deny they assured me it was ok to book this (over 6 months after I first applied for the residence permit). I have already renewed my récépissé once and the new one is about to expire soon too.
But anyway, I'm from a country which gets 90 days visa exemption for tourism. My question is: would it be ok (and by this I mean legal) to travel outside Schengen for a few days and then come back so I can get my passport stamped as if I were here simply for tourism? In my understanding with this stamp I would then have no issue flying inside the Schengen area, crossing borders and coming back to France afterwards, right?
People at the préfecture are not really friendly and just say I have to wait and dismiss my questions, so there's not much use in asking them. So if this is something that is allowed, I'd like to have something quotable if possible in case I face one 'totally random' document check at the border.
To clarify a bit based on the comments below: I have no intention to lie, in fact my question is about whether I can selectively use the visa-exception days I get from my passport to cross the borders and still maintain the validity of my residence in France by using the récépissé.