REMOVALS TO THE DORDOGNE

How a Move to the Dordogne Works

The sequence below is how nearly every job we run to this part of France actually goes. The only step that differs much from a move to a French city is the access one, and it is the step that most often decides how long the delivery day takes.

• 1. Video survey

  Walk through the property on your phone, room by room, and send it to us on WhatsApp on 07861 930529. We price from what we can see rather than from a form. Send the French end too if you have footage of it.

• 2. Written quotation

  You get a written price covering loading, transport, the customs paperwork and delivery. Packing and export wrapping are optional extras you choose at this stage, not assumptions built into the figure.

• 3. Dedicated or shared

  If your dates are fixed or the load is large, a dedicated vehicle travels to your schedule. If there is flexibility, a shared load on a scheduled run costs considerably less.

• 4. Packing and inventory

  Choose your level: a full pack of the whole house, a part pack covering the fragile items only, or your own packing with us loading. The written inventory is done on every job because it is the basis of the customs entry.

• 5. Load and cross

  Furniture travels under padded blankets and covers as standard. The vehicle crosses at Dover or on the Eurotunnel and runs south, with the customs file already lodged.

• 6. Delivery and access

  Straight to the door where the lorry can reach it. Where it cannot, the load transfers to a smaller vehicle and comes in from wherever the lorry can stand safely.

Where We Deliver in the Dordogne

We deliver across the whole department and, in practice, most of it goes to addresses outside the towns rather than in them. The Dordogne divides into four traditional areas, and it is a useful way to describe where you are when you first get in touch, because it tells us a lot about the run in from the main road.

• Périgord Blanc

  Périgueux and the centre of the department, along with Ribérac to the west and the villages along the Isle valley. The main administrative town and the easiest part of the department to reach.

• Périgord Pourpre

  Bergerac and the south west, including Eymet and the wine country around it. A long established British area and one of the busiest parts of the department for us.

• Périgord Noir

  Sarlat-la-Canéda, Montignac, Le Bugue and Belvès in the south east. Beautiful, popular, and the part of the department where access most often needs a smaller vehicle.

• Périgord Vert

  Nontron, Brantôme and the wooded north of the department towards the Limousin border. Quieter, more scattered, and often a longer run in from the main road.

• The east

  Terrasson and the corridor towards Brive. Straightforward to reach from the main north to south route, which can make it one of the quicker deliveries in the department.

• Everywhere between

  Hamlets, single houses, converted barns and properties with no near neighbour. This is the bulk of the work and it is quoted the same way, on the access rather than on the postcode.

If your move is to a French city rather than the countryside, our removals to Bordeaux page covers the nearest one, and Toulouse, Paris, Lyon and Nice have pages of their own. For the country as a whole, see our main removals to France service.

Removals to the Charente

The Charente sits directly on the road south, so removals to the Charente are the same run and quoted the same way. If anything the logistics are slightly simpler, because the department is closer to the main route and the ground is flatter than the Périgord Noir.

We deliver to Angoulême, Cognac, Jarnac, Barbezieux, Ruffec, Confolens and La Rochefoucauld, and to the villages and isolated properties around them. Neighbouring Charente-Maritime, taking in Saintes, Royan and the coast, is covered on the same basis.

• Same vehicles, same crews. The people who load your house in the UK are the people who carry it into the French one.
• Combined drops. Where a Charente delivery and a Dordogne delivery fall in the same week they often travel together, which is part of what keeps shared load pricing workable on this route.
• Rural addresses either side. Access is handled the same way in both departments, by transhipment where a full size lorry cannot get to the door.

The Route and How Long It Takes

A dedicated vehicle runs door to door in about 3 to 6 working days. The crossing is at Dover to Calais or on the Eurotunnel, and the road south runs down through Tours, Poitiers and Angoulême before turning into the Dordogne. The driving itself is roughly two days each way once tachograph rest breaks are built in, and the rest of the window covers loading, delivery and the access at both ends.

A shared or part load travels on our scheduled France run instead. It adds some time while the load is consolidated, and in exchange you pay for the space your things occupy rather than for a vehicle to make the journey for you alone. Our part-load removals to France page sets out how the shared service works and what it suits.

How Much Does a Removal to the Dordogne Cost?

The price depends on the volume, the access at both ends, and whether you take a shared load or a dedicated vehicle. Here is a typical guide for 2026:

Prices include loading, transport, customs paperwork and delivery. Packing and export wrapping are optional and quoted separately. The Dordogne is an inland run rather than a short hop from the Channel, so distance is part of what sets the figure, and a property that needs the load transferring to a smaller vehicle takes longer on the day and is priced accordingly.

Where your dates fit a scheduled run you will normally sit at the lower end of the band. You get a written quotation and that is the price you pay on the day. Get an exact quote online in under 60 seconds, or send a room by room video on WhatsApp for a written price.

Getting to the Door: Lanes, Villages and Farmhouses

This is the part of a Dordogne move worth spending time on before anyone books anything. A full size lorry needs somewhere it can stand safely, turn, and work from. Plenty of properties here have that. A good number do not, and the answer is not to send a smaller vehicle all the way from Oxfordshire, which would cost you more and hold less.

What we do instead is bring the lorry as close as it can safely get, then transfer the load to a smaller vehicle and shuttle it in. It takes longer, so it belongs in the quotation rather than in a conversation on the day. The same applies to a village street where the vehicle has to stand on the road while the crew work, and to any property where the carry from the vehicle to the door is a long one.

The single most useful thing you can send us is a video of the approach as well as the house: the last few hundred metres of lane, the gateway, and where a vehicle might stand. If you have not seen the property yourself yet, tell us that too and we will build the flexibility into the quotation.

• Tell us about the gate. Width, height and whether there is anything overhanging it. It decides which vehicle gets to the door.
• Tell us about the surface. A gravel or grass approach after heavy rain is a different job from a made up drive.
• Tell us about the stairs. A stone spiral staircase or a converted barn with a ladder to the mezzanine changes the crew size, not just the time.

Customs and the Written Inventory

Since Brexit a household move to France is a customs movement, and the paperwork is a real part of the job rather than an afterthought. Your goods travel against a customs entry, and that entry is supported by a written inventory of what is actually on the vehicle.

The inventory is produced on every job we do, whoever packed the boxes. It is not a packing list for your benefit, it is a customs document, and vague entries cause questions while questions cause delays. That is why it gets written properly at the loading end while the items are in front of us. The entry itself is lodged by the customs agent we use on every French job, so the declaration is in experienced hands rather than being the first one somebody has written that month.

Our guide to removal van parking permits across the UK and Europe covers the access and parking side of a European move, including how the French system works and how much notice each place expects.

Storage Before, During and After

French and British completion dates rarely line up neatly, and a renovation almost never finishes when it was supposed to. That gap is the normal shape of a move to the Dordogne rather than a mishap, which is why every European removal we do includes two months of free storage at our Oxfordshire site.

Your belongings go into sealed timber containers, numbered and listed against your inventory, and stay there until the French property is ready. The same crews handle the move and the store, so it is one booking, one number to call and one inventory throughout. Our containerised storage page explains how it works.

It also works in halves. Some people send the essentials out first and leave the rest in store while the barn or the roof gets finished, then have the balance delivered on a later run.

Why Choose Gentlevan for a Move to the Dordogne

• Our own crews and our own vehicles. The people who quote your move are the people who turn up and do it, at both ends of the journey.
• Family run since 2011. 205 five-star Google reviews, Move Assured and AIM accredited.
• We run the route ourselves. Vehicles go out on our removals to France route regularly, which is what makes shared load pricing possible and what keeps the transit times predictable.
• Access solved rather than discovered. A transhipment vehicle where the lorry cannot reach the door, arranged in advance and priced in the quotation.
• One written price. You get a written quotation and that is what you pay on the day.
• MoveProtect is available, our optional service providing increased liability cover, and can be arranged before your move.
• Storage included. Two months of free containerised storage on every European removal, at our own Oxfordshire site rather than a third party warehouse.
• Specialist items. Piano removals and antique furniture travel on the same load, with bespoke crating available where something needs it.