Route pair
Removals from Folkestone to France
The route this town exists on. Out of your door, onto Le Shuttle at Cheriton minutes later, and off at Coquelles onto the French motorway network — with no transhipment at the crossing and no long drive across Kent before the journey even starts.
If you are moving from Folkestone to France, you are starting from the best-placed town in Britain for it. That is not a claim about our crews — it is simply where the Channel Tunnel terminal is.
What that means practically is that the first leg of a French move, the one that costs every other firm a chunk of a day, does not exist here. The load is packed at your address and is at Cheriton within minutes.
Why Le Shuttle rather than a ferry
On Le Shuttle the vehicle drives onto the train with your goods aboard and drives off at the other end. Nothing is unloaded, transhipped or handled at the crossing at all.
That matters more than the time saving. Every handling is an opportunity for something to be knocked, and a household move already has plenty. Removing the crossing as a handling point is a genuine advantage, not a scheduling convenience.
The route after Coquelles
Off the shuttle and immediately onto the A16 or A26. From there it depends where you are going: the A28 and A13 for Normandy, the A11 west for Brittany and the Loire, the A10 through Poitiers for the Charente and the Dordogne, and the A7 down the Rhône for Provence and the Riviera.
It is a well-worn road and the vehicles that run it do so constantly. The geography is the easy part.
Where we deliver
- 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
Rural deliveries deserve a word. A stone farmhouse at the end of a track outside Ribérac poses exactly the question we ask about a lane above Hawkinge: will the vehicle physically reach the door? Send photographs of the last few hundred metres and we will plan a transfer if one is needed.
Export wrapping, which is a different specification
This is where a cheap cross-channel quote usually hides. A load crossing a border travels further, is handled more, and may be opened for inspection. Domestic packing is not built for that.
- Heavier cartons and more edge and corner protection
- Moisture protection on upholstery and mattresses
- Purpose-made cases for framed work and mirrors
- Crating for stone and glass tops
- An inventory specific enough that an opened carton matches the paperwork
If you are comparing quotes, check whether the other one is quoting export or domestic packing. It is the single commonest difference between two numbers on this route.
Customs
Since the UK became a third country a household move to France is a formal customs entry. It needs a detailed inventory in the form French customs expect, evidence that you are transferring your normal residence, and the supporting documents for relief on personal effects — the French address, the previous UK residence, and the timing.
We build the inventory at survey and prepare the declaration from it. Where a document has to come from you — a rental contract, an attestation, a tax document — we tell you at the start, not the week before loading.
Starting the move
Both addresses, rough dates, a sense of the volume, and whether shared space is an option. We will survey and quote in writing. The cross-channel page covers how the vehicle options compare and storage covers the gap if your sale completes before the paperwork does.
Route detail
Moving to France — questions
How much difference does the tunnel actually make?
On the French route, a real one. The terminal is at Cheriton, inside the town, so a load packed at your door in the morning is on a shuttle the same morning. Every other firm has to drive across Kent first, and that leg is either time or money — usually both.
Le Shuttle or the ferry?
Le Shuttle, almost always, from here. The vehicle drives on and drives off with your goods aboard, so nothing is transhipped at the crossing. The Dover ferry is occasionally better for a very tall or very large vehicle and we will use it where that is the case.
Can you deliver to a rural French property?
Regularly. The question at the far end is the one we ask on the downs above Folkestone: can the vehicle reach the door, or does the last stretch need something smaller? Photographs of the approach let us plan a transfer.
What does French customs need?
A detailed inventory in the expected form, evidence you are transferring your normal residence to France, and the supporting documents for relief on personal effects. We prepare the declaration from the survey inventory and tell you which items only you can obtain.
What about wine, tools and vehicles?
Tools travel with fuel drained. Wine above personal quantities has to be declared properly. Vehicles and firearms sit outside a household inventory entirely and need their own route — raise either early rather than at loading.
Is shared space worth it to France?
Often, for a modest load. It is the most frequently run of our four routes so the wait is shortest. The trade-off is more handlings and a delivery window rather than a named day — which matters more if the contents are valuable than most firms admit.
Next step
Moving from Folkestone to France?
Send both addresses, rough dates and a sense of the volume. We will set out the route, the vehicle options and the paperwork order.