bazzer70

Good morning all
We keep changing our minds and dithering on what would be best but slowly things are starting to happen....
Please can we solicit advice on what we should bring with when we move to France next year.....
Obviously there will be boxes of personal things that will never be ditched but what about furniture, televisions (will they work in France?) fridges, freezers, petrol lawnmower, stereo systems, dvd players, kitchen equipment etc etc etc
Our "things" are not particularly new or high quality so it wouldn't be devastating should we start from scratch but perhaps there are things we really should bring with.
We have found a furnished place to rent for a year and this place comes with storage for all our stuff. Obviously we need to consider the fact that we'd be moving all our chattels more than once if we did bring them with.
Apologies if this isn't particularly clear but any advice greatly appreciated on what we should/must and what we needed bother bring with us.
as even thanks very much!

EuroTrash

Hard to see how anyone can advise you on this, it's such a personal thing. How attached do you get to your "stuff", how easy/expensive would it be to replace, etc etc.
FWIW, I brought with me: my Orkney chair which I love and it's a for-life possession; my workstation and computer stuff because it took me so long to find the perfect setup; a lot of my kitchen stuff because why not; a few items that had sentimental value; and that's about it.
At one point in my life I had a job where I had to live onsite so for a few years I put most of my furniture and other household possessions into storage because they were "mine", part of my life and I thought I couldn't live without them. When I got them out of storage again, some things I had forgotten I had ever had and most of the things I looked at and thought "why on earth have I been paying to store all this junk all this time".
But that's me. I have always considered myself a hoarder, I get attached to stuff, but I was quite surprised at how quickly I had got detached from my things while they were in storage, so when it came to move I found it easier to chuck stuff out. You are probably different.

south_bound

We also rented a furnished house for a year with space to store our stuff until we bought somewhere more permanent. The advantage was that we didn't have to rush out and buy too much when we did move to the bought house, just replace as and when we needed to. They were not all particularly good pieces but seemed a waste throwing them out or giving them away only to buy new a little while later. We just changed the plugs on most electrical items to fit French sockets and many are still working 10 years later. I guess we could have saved a bit on the transport but a full truck load was no more expensive than a part load anyway. Its a personal thing really and I am a bit of a hoarder as well which is quite psychologically hard to change.

Lorna at Vicenza

I've been living in Italy for over 20 years, which is not France I know, but many things are similar. Apart from your personal things I would be stocking up on cheap UK medicines like Paracetamol and Ibuprofen, cold & flu powders, allergy tablets/antihistamines, multi sized plasters etc. Good deodorants that actually work. Tea-bags. Gravy. Beans. Passport sized photos. Decent and well priced, good fitting underwear. A dental check-up and a haircut. Warm and fuzzy dressing gowns. Slippers that are cosy and soft and don't crash and bang onto tiled, marble or parquet flooring with every step you make. Tools like drills and stuff if you already have them. You might find that you can work around missing your blender because you can always whisk eggs or cake mixture by hand, but sometimes it's the little and silly stuff that you miss most, like cosy footwear, or because Nurofen is 8 sodding euro in the chemist and you know that you would never pay that in the UK. Heck. Once upon a time I even brought back Blu-Tack and cheap multi-packs of nice pens and every year my mum still gifts me a His n' Hers or family UK calendar and a Chocolate Orange.

Chatter Static

We reduced our house contents down to what could be fitted into a hire van, tv's work anywhere nowadays who wants a house full of mains adapters if you can dump it in the UK and start afresh in France do it. Keep your PC/laptop/Tablet and mobile phone if your phone is not operator unlocked get it unlocked before you leave tends to save hassle later.

The second hand market in France tends to price awfully close to new in places like leboincoin "Online but local like Gumtree and ironically not owned by a French person or company" and Happy Cash or one of the many other pawn shops. Pawn shops are excellent for picking up DVD's most other things not so much if I was buying a console for the kids instead of saving 50 euros at a pawn shop I would prefer the retailers warranty.

Not sure where in France you are moving to but if your coming from the UK odd's are you should bring a Freesat box with you have a butchers on the bay and see if you can get a "Humax Foxsat HDR" you can change the firmware on them so you can keep and move HD recordings to a PC new machine etc, they are the older Freest box but the most open to user exploits. Newer Freest boxes encrypt HD recordings so you can't move them to a new box/player/disk.

If you are into home made curries Chinese proper Mexican food then bring the spices with you, imho the French concept of exotic eating is pretty bland outside of any city/large town they don't understand the difference between a Taco and a Burrito, they have a fast food chain called o`Tacos which sells burritos which has the main filler of Frites it's just poor Fat Fusion food.

Listen Very Carefully

Personally I would not bother bringing any white goods The plugs are different generally washing machines here are cold fill only plus if they go wrong at least you will still have a guarantee
if bought in France I have a TV which I bought cheaply in LeClerc years ago never had a scrap of trouble If you want Brit TV you will need a Sky or better still a Freesat set up so the box is the receiver and the TV just acts as a monitor (You will need a French TV licence)
Other than that Lorna (ha ragione) has given excellent practical tips

Chatter Static

Still prefer here, because my pharmacist will advance medications without the prescriptions which won't happen in the UK even if you have been going into the same place for years. You can buy the flu jab here without going to the doctor for a prescription

Nurofen is about 4 Euro here

In Italy if you purchased Brufen you would be buying rebranded Nurofen which is just Ibuprofen

cyrian

Not quite correct.
If you phone your pharmacy, then they can order your prescription from the surgery and the medicine will be available the following day depending on timing.
Depending on the product, the pharmacist may issue the medication and then order the required prescription.
This is not obligatory and will depend on the medication and your relationship with the pharmacist.
Nowadays in the UK there is a minor ailments service where the pharmacist can issue a prescription for a range of products without the need to visit a GP.
Also, most pharmacies offer a collect from the surgery service and possibly a home delivery service.
There is a new service being introduced shortly where you will not need a paper prescription.
Instead, the surgery will send and electronic prescription to the surgery of your choice.
If you are given a paper prescription, then the pharmacist will scan the barcode and will down load the prescription from the internet.
Many surgeries also offer online ordering for repeat prescriptions that can be sent direct to the pharmacy of your choice.

Chatter Static

They are moving on then, The Stone age is nearly over....

Annetje

That's the sort of preparations I did when living in Africa .... I never bothered for France though, one can buy it all here (don't know about the price difference).

KJMW

When we moved out here (20 years ago) there was no need to change anything, except every damn plug on an electrical appliance!!! Spend a few hours changing plugs before you come and all will be fine.

EuroTrash

Good advice. So frustrating when you've got all your stuff here and there is so much to do and you want to put your things where they go and start using them, but all the plugs are wrong and you can't even put the kettle on. Been there done that. And to my shame, hidden behind the Welsh dresser where I can't get at it, there is still one of those horrid travel adapters, that I used as an emergency measure for the microwave, then I put the dresser there, and it's been on my conscience ever since. I meant to sort it when I pulled the Welsh dresser out, but it weighs a ton and it has so many plates etc on it that in 10 years I never did...

Oh and to the forum KJMW. Your moniker reminds me of a certain firm of accountants, you're not one of them are you ???!!!

KJMW

An accountant!! God forbid! A retired London Fireman.

EuroTrash

A retired fireman. Oops. To you of all people I shouldn't have admitted to having used a microwave plugged into a travel adaptor for 10 years plus, out of sheer laziness

KJMW

I saw much worse believe me. Glad nothing happened of any consequence.