Road removals from Sussex to the south of France, planned for hilltop villages, Riviera apartments and a long, hot journey. Transfer vehicles and customs paperwork arranged before we set off.
Removals to Provence and the Côte d’Azur from the UK are the longest French road moves we plan, and the ones where access is most likely to shape the whole job. Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, the hilltop villages of the Luberon and the coast from Cannes to Menton share sunshine, stone and a great deal of charm, but also medieval lanes, stepped streets and apartment buildings with lifts the size of a telephone box. I would rather tell you that at the survey than have you find out when the lorry stops at the bottom of the village.
Avignon, inside its ramparts on the Rhône, and Aix-en-Provence, with its fountains and the plane trees of the Cours Mirabeau, draw people who want a proper town with culture on the doorstep. Between them lies the Luberon: Gordes, Roussillon, Lourmarin, Bonnieux and Ménerbes, stone villages on hilltops and ridges, many with houses that are reached on foot for the last stretch. It is a landscape people move to for the light and the lavender, and it rewards careful planning.
On the coast, the Côte d’Azur runs from Cannes through Antibes, Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer to Menton at the Italian border. Here the typical delivery is an apartment rather than a mas: a Belle Époque building in Nice, a modern block with sea views above Cannes, or a villa on a steep hillside road with a hairpin to reverse round. We cover the whole of Provence and the Riviera on the same road service, and a load bound for Italy beyond Menton can be discussed at the same time.
People come for the climate, the markets and the landscape painters made famous, and most arrive with a clear picture of the life they want. That picture is useful to us. A couple leaving a four-bedroom house in Sussex for a two-bedroom flat in Antibes will not take everything, and the survey is the right moment to decide what goes. We will tell you honestly when a piece is too big for the building you are moving into, or not worth the cost of taking 1,200 km, before you pay to ship it.
In the old centre of Avignon, in Vieux Nice and in most Luberon villages, streets were laid out long before anyone imagined an articulated lorry. Some are pedestrianised, some are stepped, and many old centres restrict large vehicles altogether. Where that is the case, the main vehicle parks at the edge of town and a smaller transfer vehicle carries the load in, in as many runs as it takes. We plan that at the survey and include it in the fixed quote.
Riviera apartments bring a different set of questions. Buildings in shared ownership are usually run by a syndic, and it is worth asking the building manager early about using the lift for furniture, protecting common areas and which hours deliveries are allowed. Where the lift is too small and the stair is tight, large pieces may need to be hoisted or taken apart. Parking outside on a busy coastal road may need permission from the mairie. And in July and August, coastal traffic is heavy and the heat inland is fierce, so we plan early starts and wrap timber, lacquer and leather to cope with it.
The Riviera and the Luberon have a high share of holiday homes, and that matters for customs. The transfer-of-residence relief covers used household goods when you are moving your main home to France; it does not cover furnishing a second home. If you are relocating for good, we prepare and file the ToR1 paperwork and our French destination agent completes the French customs entry against it. If the house in Provence is a second home, we talk through how the move is structured at the survey, so there are no surprises from the douane.
For permanent movers, residency runs through the préfecture of your département — Avignon for the Vaucluse, Marseille for the Bouches-du-Rhône, Nice for the Alpes-Maritimes. Wine collections are common on this route: they can travel with your goods if they are declared on the inventory. The French customs authority publishes the current rules. We prepare the valued inventory with you so every case is listed before the lorry leaves Sussex.
Provence moves also tend to carry antiques, paintings and collected pieces. Anything over a hundred years old may need a UK cultural export licence depending on its value; we identify those items at the survey and prepare the application where it is needed, so a fine armoire or an oil painting does not become the reason the whole consignment waits.
Allow a typical 7–10 days door to door. It is about 1,200 km from Calais to Provence, running south on the A26, down the Rhône valley on the A7 and along the A8 towards Aix and the coast. With drivers’ hours rules, customs clearance at Sevington and the Channel crossing before any of that, it is a longer job than a move to northern France and we plan it that way.
A sole-use load going direct sits at the quicker end. A shared part-load takes longer while compatible loads are gathered. Access sets the rest: if a transfer vehicle, a hoist or a street permit is needed at the delivery end, the timing of that can decide the day of delivery. If dates at the French end are uncertain, we can hold the load at our Lower Dicker depot in the meantime.
Season matters more on this route than on any other French one. Spring and early autumn are the pleasant months to move south, and the busiest; July and August bring coastal traffic, heat and holiday-makers competing for the same parking bays. If your dates are flexible, tell us, and we will suggest a delivery window that suits both the building and the weather.
We are an owner-run removals firm based at our Lower Dicker depot in East Sussex, founded in 2017, and we treat a move to the south of France as a planning exercise first and a drive second. Our crew wraps every piece in your home and loads it themselves. For a Riviera apartment with nowhere to leave boxes, our full packing service keeps the job tidy; if you are packing yourself, order our packing materials for export early. Stone tabletops, ceramics and art are exactly what export packing and crating and our bespoke crates are for, and a piano on a hillside needs piano moving by a trained crew.
We belong to the BAR Overseas Group and work to the BS 8564 international removals standard. Everything else about moving to France, including the other regions, is on our France removals overview; for Paris there is our Paris removals service, and for the rest of the continent our European removals from Sussex. Read our customer reviews or call Mark on 01323 848 008.
Looking at somewhere less far south? We also deliver to these French regions on our regular road service.
Typically 7–10 days door to door. It is around 1,200 km from Calais, so the drive is planned over several days within drivers’ hours rules, after customs clearance and the Channel crossing.
Frequently not all the way. Many village centres are too narrow or closed to large vehicles, so the lorry parks outside and a smaller transfer vehicle carries the load to the door. We plan and price that at the survey.
We check the lift and stair dimensions in advance and ask you to confirm the building’s rules with the syndic. Large pieces are dismantled, carried up the stair or, where the building allows it, lifted in another way.
No. The relief is for people moving their main home to France. For a second home the move is documented differently, and we explain the options at the survey.
Yes, provided it is declared on the inventory. We list it with you when we prepare the valued inventory and pack it to cope with a long, warm journey south.
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.