Dover → France
Removals from Dover to France.
The route this firm exists for. Twenty-odd miles of water between the Eastern Docks and Calais, and a French motorway network on the other side that reaches almost everywhere worth going.
If you are moving to France and you are already in Dover, you are in the best possible place to do it from. Everything that makes an international removal expensive and complicated — the long domestic drive, the tight sailing schedule, the survey trip — is either absent or trivial here.
The crossing and the roads after it
Loads go out through the Eastern Docks to Calais, occasionally Dunkirk. From Calais the A16 runs south-west along the coast towards Normandy and Brittany, or you pick up the A26 heading south-east towards Reims, Dijon and eventually Lyon and the Midi. The A1 takes you to Paris in a couple of hours.
That fan of motorways out of one port is why Calais suits household removals so well. Almost every part of France is a single sensible run from it.
Where our loads actually go
Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Picardy
Close enough that a delivery can happen very shortly after the crossing. Undervalued by buyers and increasingly popular for exactly that reason — solid brick towns, cheap property, and a straightforward drive back to Kent when you need it.
Normandy
Calvados, Manche, Orne. Stone farmhouses and longères, a lot of renovation, and a good number of people who keep one foot in England. Access is usually a village street or a gravel courtyard.
Brittany
Côtes-d'Armor and Morbihan especially. Further west so the French leg is longer, but still a single day's drive from the port. Rural approaches and narrow village lanes are the norm rather than the exception.
Paris and the Île-de-France
A different problem entirely — apartments, entry codes, courtyards, lifts too small for furniture, and restrictions on where a vehicle may stop. We want the floor, the lift dimensions and the street situation before we quote.
The south and the south-west
The Dordogne, Charente, Occitanie, Provence. A long run down but a well-worn one, and almost always groupage. Larger properties, more furniture, and summer heat that is worth thinking about if anything is heat-sensitive.
Paperwork
A UK export declaration, a French import entry, and an inventory that is detailed enough to answer questions before they are asked. Moving your residence brings relief, but it has to be evidenced — the property documents, proof you are leaving the UK address, and an inventory consistent with both.
We prepare it. What we need from you is honesty about what is in the boxes.
Getting a figure
Tell us the destination department, whether it is a permanent move or a second home, roughly how much is going, and what the access looks like at the French end. See the cross-channel hub for how groupage compares with a dedicated vehicle, or Spain if you are still choosing between the two.
Dover to France — questions
- How short is the crossing really?
- Dover to Calais is the shortest vehicle crossing between the UK and the continent, and the sailings are frequent. The practical effect for a removal is that loading and crossing can happen on the same working day, which is not true from anywhere else in the country.
- Calais or Dunkirk?
- Both work. Calais is quicker and more frequent; Dunkirk sometimes suits better for loads routing east or when sailing availability is tight. The onward autoroute access is good from either, so it rarely changes anything for you.
- Do we need to be there when it arrives?
- Someone does, or someone you trust with keys. French delivery addresses often need a person on site for access — gates, codes, a neighbour with a key. If you are still in the UK when the load lands, tell us early so we plan around it.
- Is a second home treated differently?
- Yes. Transfer-of-residence relief applies to moving your home, not to furnishing a maison secondaire. Second-home consignments are perfectly straightforward, they are just declared differently. Say which it is at enquiry so the paperwork matches from the start.
- What are French rural approaches like?
- Much like Kent lanes, and occasionally worse. Village streets built for carts, courtyard entrances with a stone arch that sets a hard height limit, and farm tracks that a heavy vehicle will not manage after rain. Photographs of the last two hundred metres are worth more than any description.
- Can you take a car or trailer as well?
- Sometimes, depending on the vehicle and the sailing. It carries its own paperwork and its own registration rules at the far end, so ask at enquiry rather than mentioning it when we arrive.
Moving to France?
Two addresses and a rough idea of what is going is enough to start. If it is heading out through the port, say where it is landing.