France: Moving logistics and customs headaches

On Tuesday we had our removals company back around to update on what we plan to take to France with us. As our new place has plenty of room (thank you basement!) and a garden we’ve decided to take more with us.

It came with a bit of a surprise; in order to secure our ‘slot’ for a July move, our contents would need to be picked up two days before we could enter France on our visas, and would not arrive in Eguisheim for nine days.

Yikes!

Firstly, that gives us even less time to pack, but it also introduces issues with how/where we live for the days before and after our earliest entry date without any of our belongings.

The obvious answer is to stay in hotels, but having our cat in tow makes this impractical.

Rachel’s go-to answer is always to camp, which I always reject immediately, but this time we talked it through and it feels like a feasible option.

The moving plan

We need to:

• ensure our belongings - and our car - get through customs without us incurring any duty payable
• be present in the UK for our stuff being collected, and in France for when it arrives
• live without our stuff for 2 days before we can enter France on our visas, and a further 7 until it arrives
• get our cat across France as quickly as possible (given how much it hates car travel)
• only take in our car what we can fit and what we need to survive without our main belongings.

Simple, eh?

The more we talked about in-house camping, the more realistic it felt. In recent years we’d significantly upgraded our camping gear so that our beds are extremely comfortable. Add to that we had a ready-packed set of stuff for cooking. Given we’ll have (albeit empty) properties at both ends with power, refrigeration, hot water etc we don’t actually need a tent. We would needs beds, some chairs, a table and stuff to cook with

“But”, I insisted, “it all needs to fit in the car”. So we did a test run to make sure.

The cat dilemma is a real one. After driving to Colmar recently it felt like a long drag and had us really fatigued. Imagine throwing a cat into that mix with its own dietary and toiletry needs.

So we devised a strategy where we would drive over via Le Shuttle in one day, spend a night, then put Rachel + cat on the TGV to Strasbourg which gets her across France in less than 4 hours. Meanwhile I take a solo road trip with an overnight stay on the way. We reunite in Eguisheim

Likely timetable

Here’s how it’s looking:

• Sun 12 July - complete packing everything destined for the removals van (probably before this) and dismantle beds. Get the camp beds out and bed down!
• Mon 13 July - wave goodbye to our belongings
• Wed 15 July - pack up Camp Tolpuddle, jump in the car and drive to Folkestone. Take the car through customs before going on to Lille for the night
• Thur 16 July - an early start to drop Rachel and cat off at Lille station to get the TGV. Cat essentials taken with her. Change trains at Colmar then an Uber to Eguisheim for an overnight stay in a hotel. Meanwhile I set off on my solo France crossing
• Fri 17 July - I arrive at Eguisheim and the reunited trio head for our new apartment. Time to set up Camp Bleuets!
• Wed 22 July - all our belongings arrive and we start to set up House

Packing progress

The new timetable has thrown us into a bit of a spin in getting the house packed for moving. Previously I’d been working on the idea that collection/delivery would likely be later than 15 July, but now that date and our removals are completely entwined.

No one needs a long blog post about what packing is like, so I will spare you that. However, customs requirements mean that we have to create an inventory of everything we take into the country, so I’ve come up with a system of box labelling that cross-refers to the inventory, and has a QR code linking to a Google Drive folder with photos of the box contents.

We achieved a new milestone yesterday in clearing our loft, and things are gradually being added to my old (now unused) office to minimise the chaos. Still a long way to go yet.

Mind you, suddenly becoming physically very active after many months of being so sedentary with working at home means I in real pain most of the time at the moment. I’ll be pleased when this is all over.

Customs frustrations

Brexit continues to deliver problems for everyone ten years after it came into force, and for us this is amplified by our wanting to bring our car across with us.

As a ‘third country’ this means we have to import the car and re-register it as a French vehicle. Sounds straightforward doesn’t it? Well, there are a few complications:

• the car needs a Certificate of Conformity (CoC) to prove it meets the requirements of the country. Since it’s a German car I thought that would be easy, and had actually applied for a CoC some time back (even getting a version in French) from BMW UK. It turns out this has to come from BMW France, so we’ve had to repeat this step (and pay €100)
• if we don’t clear the car through French customs and get a specific certificate we could be liable for 30% of the car’s value and not be able to register it
• as our belongings are travelling separately to us, and arriving in France at a different time, we have to work out how we have a single inventory that includes the car BUT doesn’t make customs officials think the car is in the removals van.

Sorting this out has taken most of the week, and we’re still not entirely certain we have it cracked. Seems crazy when we can’t be the first people to do this - advice is really hard to come by (even our removals firm isn’t sure). I can see why many UK companies decided to give up on exporting to the EU.