Removals to France.
The closest of the four and the gentlest first move abroad. A short crossing, forgiving paperwork, and near enough that the decision feels less final than it does to Spain or Portugal.
Before anything is packed
Decide first whether this is your home or a second property, because it changes the paperwork entirely. Moving your residence brings relief from duty, evidenced with property documents and proof you are leaving the UK address. Furnishing a holiday house does not, and is declared differently.
Neither is difficult. Getting it wrong at the start and correcting it later is.
The journey
Whatever part of the UK you are in, the load converges on the Channel. From Calais the motorway network fans out — west towards Normandy and Brittany, south-east towards Reims and Lyon, and straight down into Paris — which is why almost anywhere in France is a single sensible run from one crossing.
Most household moves travel as groupage, sharing the vehicle. That means the timing follows the vehicle rather than your packing.
Arrival day
Two things decide how it goes, and both are worth sorting weeks in advance.
Access. Rural approaches, village streets built for carts, and stone archways with an unforgiving height limit. If a full-size lorry cannot reach the door, we shuttle with something smaller — planned, not improvised.
Somebody there. With keys, any gate or door codes, and ideally a phone that works. This sounds obvious and is the single most common arrival-day problem.
A practical thought about furniture
Older French houses are not built to British dimensions. Doorways are often narrower, staircases tighter, and rooms colder and damper — particularly stone-built properties that have stood empty.
It is worth measuring the things you are most attached to before deciding they are coming, and worth airing the house before soft furnishings arrive.
What we need to quote it
The destination department, whether it is permanent or a second home, roughly the volume, and what the access looks like at the French end. The moving to Europe page explains groupage against a dedicated vehicle, and Spain if you are still deciding.
Moving to France — questions
Is France the easiest of the four?
Generally, yes. The crossing is short, the paperwork is the most forgiving of the four, and it is close enough that coming back for a forgotten thing is irritating rather than impossible. For a first move abroad it is the gentlest introduction.
Second home or permanent move — does it matter?
It changes the paperwork, not the transport. Relief on a change of residence applies to moving your household, not to furnishing a maison secondaire. Both are entirely straightforward; they are simply declared differently, so tell us which at the start.
Will someone need to be there when it arrives?
Someone with keys and any door codes, yes. French addresses very often need a person on site. An arrangement with a neighbour is fine but wants confirming properly rather than assumed — if you are still in the UK when the load lands, tell us early.
Our house is in a village with narrow streets.
Extremely common and entirely workable. A lot of French village streets and farm approaches will not take a full-size lorry, so the final stretch is a smaller vehicle. Photographs of the last couple of hundred metres are the most useful thing you can send us.
What about our furniture in a French house?
Worth thinking about before it is loaded. Older French houses have smaller doorways and tighter stairs than British ones, and stone-walled rooms are colder and damper. Large British wardrobes in particular have a habit of not fitting where you imagined them.
Moving to France?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and when you are hoping to move. We will take it from there, and there is no pressure at the end of it.