Removals from Leatherhead to France

From here the first leg is short and the timing is everything. Junction 9 is minutes away, which puts a French load on the M25 almost immediately — and puts it there at whatever hour you managed to finish loading. So the departure time is planned against what is realistic rather than what is convenient.

The route

onto the M25 at junction 9, round to the M20 and out through the Kent crossings After the crossing it is Calais or Coquelles and the A16 or A26 south, then whichever way the destination takes you: 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 deliveries go

• 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 down 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

Gated here, gated there

A good share of French moves from this patch leave a property with a gate and arrive at one with a gate — a courtyard entrance, a stone archway, or a long track to a converted farm building. The four questions we ask at Oxshott are the same four we ask about the French address: how wide, how tight the turn, what surface, and is there anywhere to turn at the house. Photographs answer all of them in a minute.

Customs

A household move to France is a formal customs entry. It needs a detailed inventory in the form French customs expect, evidence you are transferring your normal residence, and the supporting documents for relief on personal effects — the French address, the previous UK address and the timing. We build the inventory at survey and prepare the declaration from it, and tell you at the start which documents have to come from you.

Dedicated vehicle or shared space

A dedicated vehicle means your dates and the fewest handlings. Shared space means a lower cost, a delivery window rather than a named day, and more handlings along the way. On a household with pieces you would mind losing, the handling count is a real argument for a dedicated vehicle, and we will make that argument rather than quietly selling the cheaper option.

Starting the move

Both addresses, rough dates, a sense of the volume, and whether shared space is an option for you. We will survey and quote in writing. See European removals for how the four compare.