Door-to-door road removals from Sussex to the farmhouses, barns and bastide towns of south-west France. Access surveyed before we quote, and your transfer-of-residence paperwork filed before the lorry leaves.
Removals to the Dordogne and Charente from the UK are, more often than not, a move into an old stone house that somebody fell in love with on holiday. Bergerac, Eymet, Sarlat, Angoulême and Jarnac sit at the heart of what our customers call the retirement triangle, and the properties there — farmhouses, converted barns, Charentaise longères with a courtyard and a walnut tree — are lovely to live in and awkward to deliver to. As the surveyor who walks through your Sussex home before we quote, my job is to match what you are taking to where it is going, so the oak dresser that fitted your dining room also fits through a doorway built three hundred years ago.
On the Dordogne side, Bergerac is the commercial centre of the south of the département, surrounded by vineyards and handy for its small airport with flights to Britain. Eymet, a bastide town on the Dropt, is well known for its large British community, which makes the first few months noticeably easier for newcomers. Further east, Sarlat and the Périgord Noir bring medieval streets, a famous market and hillside properties with serious views and serious driveways.
In the Charente, Angoulême sits on its hill above the river with a ramparted old town, while Jarnac and the villages along the Charente are cognac country: vineyards, distilleries and long, low farmhouses with outbuildings that people turn into gites, workshops or a home for the furniture they could not bear to sell. We deliver to every village between these towns, and to Charente-Maritime towards the Atlantic coast, on exactly the same service. If you are heading to the capital instead, our weekly Paris removals service is the better fit.
What draws people here is space and pace. For the price of a small house in the south-east you can often buy a farmhouse with land, a barn and a view, and the markets, the river valleys and the long summer evenings do the rest. That space has a practical side for the move, too: many customers bring far more furniture than they would to an apartment, because there is room for it, and outbuildings mean garden tools, workshop equipment and the ride-on mower all come as well. We list those at the survey so the vehicle is sized for the real load rather than the house you are leaving.
The drive south is the easy part. What decides how a Dordogne delivery goes is the last few hundred metres. A lot of rural properties are reached by a single-track lane, sometimes unmade, often with a ditch on each side and an overhanging walnut or chestnut. A full-size removal lorry will not get down some of them, particularly after rain, so where the survey shows that risk we plan for the load to be shuttled from the nearest firm road in a smaller vehicle.
Inside, stone houses have their own habits: deep walls, low beams, spiral stone staircases to the upper floor and doors that are narrower than British ones. We measure the pieces that matter — wardrobes, sofas, bed bases, the dresser — and, where the address is known, compare them with photographs or measurements of the new house. Anything that will not go up the stairs is better identified in Sussex than on the doorstep. Summer afternoons inland can be very hot, so in July and August we aim for early starts, and we use export packing and crating for anything that dislikes heat or a long run on the motorway.
The customs side of a move here is the same as anywhere in France: if you are moving your main home, the transfer-of-residence relief normally lets your used household goods in without French import VAT or duty, provided you have owned and used them for at least six months. We prepare and file the ToR1 paperwork for every eligible mover, around a fortnight before the lorry leaves, and our French destination agent deals with the French customs entry against it.
What is particular to this region is the mix of people moving. Plenty of households in the Dordogne start with a holiday home and later decide to live there full time; if that is you, tell us at the survey, because goods going to a second home do not qualify for the relief and the paperwork is structured differently. Residency itself — the titre de séjour you need for stays beyond ninety days — is handled through the préfecture, which for the Dordogne is Périgueux and for the Charente is Angoulême. The French government’s official public-service portal sets out the current requirements. We do not apply for residency on your behalf, but we will make sure the removal dates sit comfortably around it.
Allow a typical 5–7 days door to door for a sole-use load: loading in Sussex, customs clearance at Sevington, the Channel Tunnel crossing to Calais, and then the long run south on the A10 and N10 towards Poitiers, Angoulême and on to Bergerac. Drivers’ hours rules set how far a removal vehicle can legally travel in a day, so this is a planned two-day drive with a proper rest in between, not a dash.
Two things move that window. A shared part-load waits for compatible loads heading the same way, which adds a few days in exchange for a lower cost. And rural French property purchases complete with the notaire, whose dates can slip at short notice. If yours does, we hold everything in storage before shipping overseas at our Lower Dicker depot and send it on when the keys are actually in your hand, rather than leaving a loaded lorry waiting in a lay-by near Périgueux.
We are a family-run East Sussex firm, founded in 2017, and France is the destination our customers ask for more than any other. The people who wrap your furniture are the people who load it, and nothing is swapped between depots on the way. For a farmhouse full of oak and old pine, our full packing service takes the whole job off your hands; if you would rather pack the books and kitchen yourself, we deliver export-grade packing materials in good time. A marble washstand, a gilt mirror or a painting goes into a made-to-measure box from our custom crate service, and an upright or grand piano gets specialist piano handling up the farmhouse steps.
Our credentials are straightforward: we are a member of the British Association of Removers Overseas Group and work to BS 8564, the standard for international removals. You can see how the rest of the country fits together on our removals to France page and our wider European removals service, read what our customers say, or find out who we are before you ring Mark on 01323 848 008.
Not settled on the south-west? These are the other French regions we deliver to regularly, each with its own page.
A sole-use load typically takes 5–7 days door to door, via the Channel Tunnel and the A10/N10 south. A shared part-load takes a little longer because it waits for other loads heading the same way.
Often, but not always. We check the access at survey, from photographs or a visit, and where a full-size vehicle cannot safely get down the lane we plan a smaller vehicle to shuttle the load from the nearest firm road. That is built into the quote, not added on the day.
Only once it becomes your main home. Goods going to a second home do not qualify, so tell us at the survey which applies. If you are now moving permanently and meet the conditions, we file the ToR1 paperwork before the lorry leaves.
Some of it may not, which is why we measure the large pieces at survey and compare them with the new house where we can. Anything that will not make the turn can be dismantled, taken in another way, or left in Britain before you pay to move it.
Yes. We hold loads at our Lower Dicker depot in East Sussex and send them on once the completion date is confirmed, so a delay in France does not mean a lorry waiting outside a house you cannot yet get into.
Call us for a free, no-obligation quote, or use our online form. Whether it is a shared part-load or a whole house, we have handled the route before and we will handle yours with care.