Removal Options/ideas Uk To France

[Danny D]

Hi there,

My wife and I are moving to Thiviers in the Dordogne region in late September. We are looking into all the options with regards to removals and think it will be best to hire a Luton size van from a French company in the Thriviers area to self drive. Does anyone know of a company that could help and that doesn't charge per KM/MILE?

Many thanks in advance!

DD

[Deeana]

Hi, I'm not able to really answer your question, but I'm in the process of moving house contents to France too. We have hired a local (UK) small chap with a Mercedes Sprinter long wheel base truck to take the large stuff over and he is charging us 1000 pounds for two men - going to the furthest part of Brittany - 8 hours from Calais. The rest of our stuff, the small things and the boxes which are easier to move we will take out later in a rental van from the UK. I don't know if it is possible, but I wonder whether you could hire something from Avis or one of the international companies and return it to a French location. I somehow doubt it but it could be a great option. There's sadly no cheap or easy solution to this one!
Deeana

[Bevdeforges]

Just doing a quick check of French truck rentals, you might want to check Europcar. I'm having a little bit of trouble with their website at the moment, but it appears you can do a 7 day rental for what appears to be a daily rate with no mention of a per km/mile charge.

No guarantees, but it's probably worth a look.
Cheers,
Bev

[parsnips]

Just a thought, but however you do it, don't make the same mistake as friends of ours who after paying dear to bring over a mass of stuff, have spent days taking unwanted items to the tip; be ruthless when selecting items to bring!

[Deeana]

I'll second that one! (Unless you are a great fan of running car boot sales that is!)

[Danny D]

Hi everyone,

Thanks ever so much for all the replies and advice.

I am speaking to a local "man with van" tomorrow for a price - so will see if it's feasable.
I also saw that Europcar have a depot in Limoges (only 40mins from our new place) and their rental costs look reasonable, I just wonder whether you can take their vehicles to across the channel?
As for being ruthless I have just taken a couple of estate car loads to our local tip today - sure there will be plenty more before we leave!

Again thanks all, any other thoughts please let me know!

DD

[Deeana]

If you find out whether you can drop of a van over the channel at Europcar do let us know - I can see that being a very useful facility for many folks.

[Bevdeforges]

I don't know for sure, but I suspect it would be difficult to do a "one-way" rental on a truck. There's very little call for a right hand drive truck in France, and vice versa for a left hand drive truck in the UK.
Cheers,
Bev

[Danny D]

Hi Bev,

You're quite right, no rental company would offer that option. Our plan is to hire the vehicle from a local company near to where we are moving to in the Dordogne, drive back to the UK, load it, then drive it back to France, unload and return it to the orginal depot. What I need to find is a company in the Dordogne who will will allow me to take the vehicle to the UK, and that preferably offer unlimited milage, so that the cost is kept down.

After weighing up all the options I believe that to be the best, althought I would be happy to be proved wrong if anyone has any other suggestions!

Thanks again!

DD

[minesthechevy]

The way we moved is probably wholly impractical in your case, but it worked out by far the cheapest way for us.

A mate paid a UK-based 'well-known international removers' around £9K for his move from Hampshire to Limousin. We lived 50 miles north of him in the UK, and now live near Grenoble, and had about twice as much 'stuff' to transport.

What we did was buy a Renault 7.5 tonne lorry in the UK, loaded it ourselves, and came over once a month for six months. It made a great way to meet the locals ahead of the move, it showed them that we were just regular folks almost like real frenchies, and most importantly it meant that our stuff got looked after by the removals guys.

When we'd all done, the lorry went back to the UK where it was sold (actually for about £100 profit, which was nice).

Its certainly worth considering if anyone has a lot of stuff and enough time to plan ahead.