France: Touchdown!

That was a tough few days; over 1,000 kilometres, and nearly as many painkillers. As I write I’m sitting on the sofa of our rented apartment just outside Ammerschwihr in Alsace, with my legs up on a comfy pillow, the balcony door open showing a view of the woodland, and a happy pusscat exploring every corner of the place.

So we’re here but not quite there yet. This is our temporary place until our belongings arrive next Wednesday when we can move in with them. And to be honest, it feels very good to be in one place, even for a short while.

Pre-moving pains

After an uncomfortable weekend I realised the opportunities to get any NHS-based medical help were running out. So we headed off to Weymouth’s Urgent Care Treatment unit at the Community Hospital.

Whereas before I’d either just been given painkillers (GP) or completely inappropriate exercises that made things worse (Physio) I just needed someone to take a look at me knee to work out why I was in such a bad state.

Thankfully a duty nurse (nurses rock!) spent more time examining my knee and asking more questions. But we didn’t get any x-ray or scans that could have revealed something. But I was asked the question ‘what are you looking to get from us today’ which was really helpful; basically I just wanted to stop continually aggravating my knee from really simple movements. The previous day Rachel had gone out and bought me a pair of crutches, so my visit did at least arm me with a much improved knee brace and permission to go get Co-Codamol for pain at nights.

All this did mean that any notion of me actually driving to Eguisheim pretty much went out of the window, so unfortunately Rachel’s jokey title of ‘Director or Relocation’ became a real one.

Moving day

So the day finally arrived for all our belongings disappearing for 9 days. We’d woken early to get those last jobs done, tape up those final boxes, and reserve some space outside for the removals van.

We had three guys working for 3 hours, with a 14m container vehicle that we only half filled (I was told thanks to my packing!). One of the guys had to spend all his time just writing out everything the loaded for customs purposes. Because I’d used my own labelling there was clear information on contents for each box (all 97 of them) so this made life a bit easier. Apparently, every box would have had to be opened to identify the contents otherwise. Crazy business.

Steve (or Mr Paperwork) was pretty open about his strong Tory roots, but equally as open about the ridiculous position Brexit has placed firms like Brittania. Prior to working with them he ran his own fruit and veg company, but the import requirements killed it off. How did voices like his get drowned out by ex-stockbrokers, lifetime politicians and, lets be honest, cunts?

Leg 1: Tolpuddle to Folkestone

Once Camp Tolpuddle had been dismantled and packed we waved goodbye to the village and headed to Puddletown to post our WiFi router back to EE (or we’d get at £85 charge) then headed off to Folkestone for the first leg of the drive.

…and then a warning popped up on the car dashboard telling us we needed to change the brake pads. Not now, BMW!!

Compared to our last trip to Folkestone this was a walk in the park. We were both really glad that we’d decided to add a stop this side of the Channel, as with breaks it took a good few hours.

We struck lucky with our hotel choice, which turned out to be a nice place. I’ll be honest that I thought Folkestone may just turn out to be another port town disaster (think Plymouth) but the seafront promenade was really lovely.

The staff also helped out with a last-minute panic around having a copy of our lease available for customs, by printing a copy I sent them by email.

Leg 2: Folkestone to Reims

This was the lion’s share of the journey, and we’d hoped we’d done well through booking an early crossing on Le Shuttle. Except when we got there everything had been delayed an hour due to the first two crossings being cancelled.

Pet import clearance

Not much we could do about it so we focused on getting the cat cleared for the journey. Le Shuttle has a nice dedicated area for pets, but you soon realise it’s entirely focused on dogs. I get it, I mean who would be stupid enough to transport their cat overseas?

Once cleared after a quick check of the Animal Health Certificate, and a scan of his microchip, we came out clutching our forms and went back to sitting in the car as the crossing delay time ramped up to 90 mins. Then 2 hours.

Fortunately the staff really were working to sort out the mess, and a passing official checked out our crossing number on the windscreen and waved us off to the queueing area. In the end the train moved off at around 12:00 so we had been delayed over 90 mins.

Car Import through customs

Once off the train the last hurdle was to get our car import approved by the bureau de douane at Calais. As I could never recall seeing anything like that when leaving Le Shuttle previously I’d watched YouTube videos and read through Reddit posts to try and pin it down. And I thought I had it cracked; with directions, a map and a photo of the sign we needed to follow

Except it wasn’t there, and we were in danger of getting on the main autoroute and leaving Calais!

Desperate to find anyone to help us, we started following any signs back to the Tunnel - as if we were leaving the country. I also plugged in the address I’d found for the place, which took us on a wild ride through the freight area. And then we saw a guy in a tabbard and aimed for him. After some initial miscommunication he got where we were aiming for and pointed us to the roundabout nearby, which we had to get on by going up a no entry road!

The signage was fairly non-existent, but we kind of gathered where we needed to be by the huge amount of goods vehicles parked up near a building. Rachel headed in clutching our paperwork, and I took on catsitting duties in the hot sun.

After about 20 mins she emerged for more paperwork and went back in. Then another 20 mins went by until she came out with two customs officers. I figured they would start wading through the mini-inventory we’d created (which by this time was all wrong) but all they needed to see was the car’s VIN (quickly located on the windscreen) and they were all gone. Another 20 mins and out came Rachel clutching the famed Form 846A. We had done it - the final milestone.

After that it was a little matter of a 280km drive to just outside Reims where we had our next overnight stop. To spend more time with the cat we had a ‘Hotel Picnic’ rather than a meal out, with a baguette, some gorgeous cheese, a tarte aux pommes and (best of all) a pint of Affligem each.

Leg 3: Reims to Ammerschwihr

The last 337km stretch of the journey took us off the autoroutes and over (rather then through) the Vosges mountains. This gave us another picnic opportunity

Just had a picnic under an old pine tree in the Vosges mountains, watching les pelatons race past. But how is your Thursday going?

— Neil Lawrence (@ox1digital.co.uk) 16 July 2026 at 15:02

And so we arrived, oddly at a golf course set in the Vosges foothills, surrounded by vineyards, and just 12km from our final destination of Eguisheim.

Cat Calmness

Right from the start of our planning we’d been worried about how well our cat would travel given the distance and time involved. The furthest he’d travelled prior to this was Oxford to Tolpuddle, and we heard all about his unhappiness for much of the way there.

Rachel had done lots of prep work here, and all of it paid off. It included a new carrier with more room for him, more vents and water/biscuit troughs. Plus she’d made him a comfy cushion. Alongside this were collapsible bowls for water and biscuits, a supply of kitty litter and food. We worked on ensuring the air conditioning in rear of the car pointed up at him, and also got some stick-on shades for the car windows to keep the relentless sun overheating him.

And the result….he has been amazing. The occasional miaow has been heard en route (but much less noise than I was making) but otherwise you wouldn’t have known her as there. At each overnight stop he’s made a brief sortie under the bed, but has been out within a couple of hours and exploring. What a champ (and what a relief)!

And here he is on his favoured sleeping spot at Ammerschwihr