Kent → France
Kent to France, step by step
The crossing is the short part and the part nobody needs explaining. What is worth explaining is everything around it — the booking, the file, the loading order and the six hundred miles that can follow Calais.
- LoadUsually the day before the crossing on anything beyond a part-load. A vehicle that leaves your street in the morning and queues in the afternoon has wasted the best part of a day.
- BookA loaded removals vehicle is a different booking from a car — length, height and cargo all matter, and the slot is taken in advance rather than turned up for.
- DeclareThe export declaration and transit paperwork are raised before the vehicle moves. The inventory that sits behind them was written and valued at packing, not at the terminal.
- CrossThe short leg, and the one everybody focuses on. It is also the part we have least control over, which is exactly why everything else is planned tightly.
- Run southCalais outward: the A26 for Reims and Burgundy, the A16 for Normandy, the A28 and A10 for the Loire, Bordeaux and the south-west, and the long haul to Provence beyond.
- DeliverSurveyed in advance where we can, read from photographs where we cannot. Rural lanes and Paris courtyards are the two recurring problems, and both have standard answers.
Beyond Calais is most of the job
People picture a French move as the crossing. In practice the crossing is a slot and the rest is a long drive with a delivery problem at the end of it.
Normandy and the Pas-de-Calais are a short run on the other side. The Loire and the Dordogne are half a day. Provence and the Riviera are the length of Britain again. That is what shapes the quote, and it is why the route is stated on it rather than implied.
The two French delivery problems
Rural access. A farmhouse at the end of a track, a gateway built for a horse and cart, a courtyard with no turning space. The answer is a shuttle with a smaller vehicle, planned in advance.
Urban access. A Paris courtyard, a lift with room for two people and nothing else, a staircase that will not take a sofa. The answer is often a hoist through a window — which is normal there, and needs booking rather than improvising.
The file, and who gets which bit
We prepare and lodge the export declaration and the transit paperwork, and we build the inventory as the packing happens rather than from memory afterwards. You obtain the French address proof and the residency evidence, because only you can.
Start yours first. They take longer than ours and they are the usual reason a date slips.
Second home or actual move
Kent sends a lot of both. The distinction decides the duty position and it has to be settled before anything is valued — not because we are being pedantic, but because the declaration carries your name on it.
Spain shares the first half of the French drive before turning south at Bordeaux, and the overview covers dedicated versus shared loads.
Worth knowing
Kent to France, the practical questions
Why load the day before?
Because a crossing is a slot, not a queue you can shorten by leaving early. Loading the previous day means the vehicle departs against the booking rather than against your street, and it takes the pressure off the morning at your end.
Tunnel or ferry for a removals lorry?
Usually the tunnel — quicker, far less weather-dependent, and a straightforward booking for a loaded vehicle. The Dover ferry is the alternative from the same county and occasionally the better call for timing. For Brittany and lower Normandy the western sailings sometimes win, though the drive west from Kent usually cancels the saving.
Do we need to be at the crossing?
No. You travel separately, by whatever route suits you. What we need from you before the vehicle moves is the paperwork complete and the destination access understood.
What does the French file contain?
An itemised, valued inventory in French and signed by you; proof of the French address through a deed or a signed lease; and evidence you are transferring residence — a work contract, a residency application, or a consulate certificate of change of residence.
We are furnishing a house we already own. Different?
Entirely. Transfer-of-residence relief applies where France becomes your primary residence; furnishing a second home is a conventional import assessed on declared value. It changes the file, not the driving, and it must be settled before the inventory is valued.
Can you deliver into a Paris apartment?
Yes, with planning. Courtyard access, a lift built for people rather than furniture, a staircase with a turn, and sometimes a permit to stand outside at all. An external hoist through a window is a standard Paris method and gets costed at survey rather than discovered on arrival.
What about a farmhouse down a track?
Common, and it is a shuttle rather than a problem — a smaller vehicle for the last stretch. Photographs of the lane, the gateway and the turning space are what let us plan it properly.
Tell us the French address and which situation you are in.
Where it is going decides the route and the delivery method. Whether France becomes home decides the whole customs file.