Removals from Erith to France

Moving from Erith to France is about as straightforward as an international move gets. DA8 is close to the crossings, the roads on the other side are excellent, and the vehicles that run this corridor do it constantly. What has changed since Brexit is the paperwork, and that is now the part that needs the planning.

Who moves this route

Three groups, broadly. People relocating for work — Paris, Lyon, the university cities. People buying a second home in Normandy, Brittany or the south-west and furnishing it. And retirement moves, which have been going to the Charente and the Dordogne for decades and still are.

They need different things. A work move is date-driven and wants its own vehicle. A second-home furnish is a shared load. A retirement move is a full household with a longer runway and more that deserves proper protection.

The route

From Erith it is the A206 up to the A2, or straight onto the M25 at Dartford, then the M20 across Kent. Folkestone for Le Shuttle or Dover for the ferry. It is a short first leg by the standards of this work — one of the real advantages of moving from this side of London.

After the crossing it is Calais or Coquelles and then the A16 or A26 south. From there it depends on the destination: the A28 and A13 for Normandy, the A11 for Brittany and the Loire, the A10 through Poitiers for the Charente and Dordogne, and the A7 down the Rhône for Provence.

Where we deliver

• Normandy and the north — Rouen, Caen, Calvados, the Cotentin
• Brittany and the Loire — Rennes, Vannes, Nantes and the coast
• Charente, Dordogne and the Lot — stone houses at the end of long lanes
• Occitanie and the south-west — Toulouse, the Tarn, the Aude
• Provence and the Riviera — Aix, the Var, the Alpes-Maritimes
• Paris and the Île-de-France — apartment deliveries with their own access rules

Rural deliveries deserve a word. A farmhouse at the end of a track outside Ribérac has the same problem as a flat above a shop in Erith: the vehicle may not reach the door. We ask for photographs of the last few hundred metres before the load leaves, and plan a transfer if one is needed.

Customs and paperwork

Since the UK became a third country, a household move to France needs a formal customs entry. In practice: a detailed inventory in the form French customs expect, evidence that you are transferring your normal residence, and the supporting documents for relief on personal effects — proof of the French address, the previous UK residence, and the timing of the move.

We build the inventory at survey and prepare the declaration from it. Where something has to come from you — a rental contract, an attestation, a tax document — we tell you at the start, not the week before loading.

Why people go

Space, mostly, and what it costs. A house with land in the Charente is a different proposition from the same outlay on this side of the Channel. Add a journey home that is genuinely short from northern France, and the pull is easy to understand. It is rarely a sudden decision.

Starting

Send both addresses, rough dates, a sense of the volume, and whether you would consider a shared load. We will survey and quote in writing. The European removals page compares the vehicle options; Spain and Portugal run the same first leg, further.