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THE FAR END

London to France

Removals from London to France France

France is the shortest run we do and the one where the far end is most often an upper floor of a building put up in the 1860s. A cour you enter through a porte cochère, a lift added a century after the stair, and a stone spiral that was never meant to take a three-seater. The crossing is the easy part of a French move.

The Channel is ninety minutes. The fourth floor of a Paris block is the rest of the day.

Six questions about the far end

What we need to know about the new address

The floor number Counted the French way. What the English call the first floor is often the ground here, and the difference is one flight of carrying.
Is there a lift, and what fits in it Internal width, depth and door aperture in centimetres. A Paris lift added to a Haussmannian stairwell is frequently too small for a sofa and sometimes too small for a mattress.
The stairwell Whether it spirals, how tight the turn is, and whether the handrail can come off. A tight stone spiral is the single commonest reason a piece does not go up.
The courtyard and the street door Whether the furniture enters through the porte cochère or a narrower side door, and the width of whichever one it is.
Where the van can stand Whether there is a permit, a bus lane, a pedestrian zone or a delivery bay, and for how long. In central Paris this decides whether we carry or shuttle.
Who will be there with keys A name and a number. A gardien who has gone to lunch is a genuine afternoon lost.

The route

The tunnel or a ferry, then the French motorway network to the door. The crossing is a slot booked with an operator we do not own, and we say so; the drive and both unloads are our own crew.

Sole use or groupage

Sole use puts your goods alone in the vehicle, loaded once and unloaded once. Groupage shares the run with another household going the same way — less cost, more handling, and a departure that waits on the second load. On a run this short groupage is common and sensible.

Who moves on this route

  • Households moving to a job in Paris, where the flat is almost always smaller and higher than the London one they are leaving.
  • Families going to Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes or Toulouse — city-centre flats in old stock, with parking rules that decide where the van can stand.
  • People with a place in the south-west or Provence, moving part of a London home into it rather than the whole thing.
  • Returning French nationals emptying a London flat, usually with the paperwork already in order and a clear idea of the building at the other end.

Destination areas

Where the load is actually going

Paris and the inner suburbs Haussmannian and pre-war blocks. Upper floors, small lifts, spiral stairs and restricted kerbside. Where an external hoist is the only route in, it is planned at survey rather than discovered on the day.
Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse Old city-centre stock with modern loading restrictions. The constraint is usually the van rather than the stair.
The south-west and Dordogne Larger houses, ground-floor access, and lanes a long vehicle cannot always take. The approach matters more than the storey here.
Provence and the Côte d’Azur Hill villages with stepped approaches and addresses no vehicle reaches. The carry distance is measured, not estimated.
Brittany and Normandy The shortest run of all, often booked as a part-load because a single flat will not fill a vehicle going this short a distance.

Paperwork

Who holds which document

Since the UK left the EU a household move to France needs a customs entry even though nothing is being sold. What follows is what is normally asked for. It is not legal, tax or customs advice, and the French authorities set the requirements.

Passport or identity document YouFor the person the goods belong to, matching the name on everything else in the file.
Proof of the French address YouA lease, a deed or a utility connection in your name.
Proof of transfer of residence YouUsually a certificate from the mairie or a consular document. This is what decides whether the move is treated as a relocation.
A valued inventory UsBuilt at the packing visit, item for item, in a form the entry can be filed against.
Insurance declaration YouDeclared values for the load, with a clear account of what the cover on our own carriage includes.

Arriving in France

The crew that carried your things down a London stair carries them up the French one. That continuity is the point: the people who know the wardrobe came apart in a particular order are the people putting it back together.

What we ask for in advance is the six answers above, in writing, with measurements rather than adjectives. "There is a lift" is not an answer; "the lift is 90 by 110 with an 80-centimetre door" is. The difference between those two sentences is frequently a hoist.

Where a piece will not go up, we say so before it is loaded in London rather than after it has been driven to Paris. That is an uncomfortable conversation at survey and a far worse one on a pavement in the 11th.

London to France

Questions about moving to France

Why do you keep asking about the floor?
Because it is the single biggest thing nobody puts in an international quote, and it changes the crew size, the equipment and the length of the day more than the distance does.
What if the lift is too small?
Then it is the stair, and if the stair will not take it either, it is a hoist or an external lift. All three are plannable. What is not plannable is finding out on the day.
Does the same crew unload in France?
Yes. All four of our destinations are road routes so the crew that loads is the crew that unloads. There is no destination agent.
Can you take a part-load?
On France, frequently — it is a short enough run that a single flat rarely fills a vehicle. We set out the trade-off rather than pushing one option.
Who files the customs entry?
An agent, against documents and declarations you supply. The accuracy of those is legally yours. We will tell you what is normally asked for.

Send us one measurement

The clear diagonal across the tightest turn on your staircase, corner to corner, with the handrail in place. That single figure answers more questions about a London move than a room-by-room inventory does.

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