Best Packing Tips for Moving to France: What to Bring and What to Leave

The most expensive packing mistake has nothing to do with bubble wrap. It is paying $8,000 to ship furniture into a Paris apartment that already has furniture, up four flights of stairs, in a building with no lift.

Generic packing lists assume you already know your future home. Most expats moving to Paris do not. Sea freight takes six to ten weeks, while a well-supported apartment search closes in about 20 days. That gap changes everything about how, and when, you should pack.

This guide covers what is worth shipping, what expats regret bringing, real 2026 shipping costs, and the French customs rules that let your belongings enter duty-free. It is written for American and British families, executives, diplomats, and entrepreneurs relocating to Paris.

For most expats heading to Paris, the list of what not to ship is longer, and worth more money, than the list of what to bring. Start by protecting the things France cannot replace, then cut aggressively.

The items genuinely worth the container space

A few categories justify their shipping cost almost every time:

• Official documents. Apostilled birth certificates, diplomas, tax returns, and medical records. French administration will ask for certified translations, which cost €40 to €80 per document from a sworn translator, so bring clean originals.
• Quality clothing and coats. Parisian winters reward a good wool coat, and replacing a professional wardrobe at French prices adds up quickly.
• Specialty cookware and tools you actually use. This surprises people. France has excellent high-end kitchenware and cheap basics, but very little in between. Task-specific utensils you rely on are harder to replace than you think.
• Children's essentials. School records, vaccination certificates, and the comfort items that make a new bedroom feel familiar.
• Art, heirlooms, and valuables. These travel once and matter forever. They also need special customs treatment, covered further down.

What Americans and Britons regret shipping

The same regrets come up again and again among expats who have made the move:

• American bed linens, which do not fit French mattress and pillow sizes
• Bulk toiletries, since French pharmacies cover almost everything at fair prices
• Boxes of English books, when a Kindle and Amazon France do the same job
• Furniture destined for a furnished rental, for reasons explained in the next sections
• Any appliance that only runs on 120V

One more honest note. An international mover earns more when you ship more, because pricing follows volume. A housing advisor has the opposite incentive: the better they know your future apartment, the shorter your packing list becomes. Keep that in mind when a quote encourages you to fill the container.

If you want a firsthand perspective before you start taping boxes, this video walkthrough from expats who have already made the move is a useful companion to this guide.

France runs on 230V at 50Hz with Type E sockets.

That single fact settles most electronics debates in seconds: check the label on each device before it earns a place in your shipment.

If you are moving from the US

Look at the fine print on the charger or power supply. If it reads "Input: 100-240V", the device is dual voltage and only needs a €5 plug adapter. Laptops, phones, tablets, and camera chargers almost always pass this test.

Anything marked 120V only, especially devices with heating elements or motors, should stay behind. Hair dryers, styling tools, and most kitchen gadgets fall into this group. A voltage transformer technically works, but it is bulky, shortens the life of the device, and carries a real fire risk. Replacing these items in France is cheaper and safer.

If you are moving from the UK

Good news: the UK and France share the same 230V standard, so most of your appliances will work fine. You only need a Type G to Type E plug adapter. Do not cut off UK plugs to rewire them, use proper adapters or EU power strips instead. A surge protector is worth adding for sensitive electronics, and note that UK televisions can run into broadcast standard issues with French terrestrial TV.

Here is the step most packing guides skip entirely: find out whether your Paris apartment comes furnished, because that single fact rewrites your whole list. It is also the reason this guide keeps insisting that housing comes before packing, not after.

A furnished rental already covers the basics

French law requires landlords to equip a furnished rental with a defined minimum: bed and bedding, cooking hobs, an oven or microwave, a fridge with freezer compartment, dishes and utensils, a table and seating, storage, lamps, and cleaning equipment. The full list is set by decree and published on the official Service-Public portal.

Furnished leases are also the default for the Paris expat market, especially for stays of one to three years. The practical consequence is blunt: shipping a container of furniture into a furnished apartment means paying thousands of dollars to transport things your landlord is legally required to provide.

Unfurnished rentals demand more than you expect

If you sign an unfurnished lease, which is less common for expats but standard for long-term settlers, prepare for the opposite surprise. An unfurnished apartment in France is often barer than its American or British equivalent. There may be no fridge, no light fixtures, and in some cases no fitted kitchen at all. In that scenario, shipping your household suddenly makes financial sense, and your container becomes an asset rather than a cost.

Understanding which lease you are signing matters well beyond packing. Our guide to the essential home contracts when moving to Paris explains what each type commits you to.

Older Parisian buildings limit what physically fits

Classic Haussmann buildings charm everyone until moving day. Many have no elevator, and the staircases are narrow and spiral. Oversized sofas and American king beds regularly fail to make the turn.

The standard workaround is hiring a furniture lift that hoists items through a window, which adds several hundred euros to the move. The smarter workaround is knowing your building's constraints before your shipment leaves port, not while your sofa sits on the pavement of the 7th arrondissement.

Used household goods enter France without duties or VAT when you transfer your primary residence, provided you meet every condition on a short but strict checklist. Get the paperwork right and clearance is routine. Get it wrong and your container waits at Le Havre while fees accumulate.

1. How to qualify for duty-free entry

If you are arriving from outside the EU, which includes both the US and the UK, French customs grants relief when all of the following apply:

• You have lived outside the EU for at least 12 consecutive months
• You have owned and used the goods for at least six months before the move
• The goods arrive within 12 months of your change of residence
• You commit to not selling or renting them out for 12 months after entry

Arrivals from within the EU face no customs formalities at all. The official conditions are detailed on Service-Public's guide to moving to France from abroad.

2. The paperwork that clears your shipment

Three documents do most of the work:

• A detailed inventory, valued, dated, and signed in two copies, listing items by category, approximate age, and value
• The CERFA 10070 form, the declaration of duty-free entry for personal property
• Proof of your move: evidence of your former residence abroad plus evidence you are settling in France, such as a work contract, a long-stay visa, or a carte de séjour

Be thorough and honest on the inventory. Inspections happen, and a shipment that does not match its declaration creates delays and penalties.

3. Valuables, art and diplomatic shipments

Antiques, artwork, and high-value items require separate declarations and professional valuation certificates. If you are diplomatic or embassy staff, your consignment follows a distinct duty-free regime coordinated through your mission's protocol department. Confirm the procedure before mixing personal valuables into an official shipment, as the two channels have different rules and timelines.

The right timeline runs backwards from your lease signature, not forwards from your flight date. Sea freight takes six to ten weeks. A supported apartment search in Paris closes in about 20 days. Sequence those two numbers correctly and you avoid both storage fees and shipping regrets.

Families with children

Keep school records, vaccination certificates, and translated transcripts in your carry-on luggage, never in the container. International schools in Paris run waitlists of 12 to 18 months for popular year groups, so applications should go in before you have a confirmed address. Comfort items fly with the children, not with the freight. Our guide for American families settling in Paris walks through the school timeline in detail.

Executives and entrepreneurs

The two-suitcase arrival is the most efficient pattern we see. Fly with your work wardrobe and documents, secure the lease, then trigger the shipment once you know exactly what the apartment needs. You trade a few weeks of waiting for zero storage costs and zero wasted volume. For a senior professional whose time bills at €500 or more per day, avoiding 60 hours of self-managed logistics is worth over €3,750 before counting the stress.

Diplomats and embassy staff

Coordinate your consignment schedule with your protocol department early. Diplomatic shipments follow their own customs franchise and timeline, and personal effects moving outside that channel need standard clearance. Planning the two streams together prevents either from blocking your arrival.

Every packing question in this guide traces back to the same root: you cannot pack correctly for an apartment you have not secured yet. Solving the housing question first is what turns packing from guesswork into a checklist.

1. Secure the apartment before the container sails

Our accommodation search service exists precisely for this sequencing problem. In a Paris market with a vacancy rate of roughly 1 to 2 percent, our team prepares your rental dossier in the format French landlords expect, opens access to off-market listings, and typically closes a search in about 20 days. You know your exact apartment, its lease type, its floor, and its staircase before you decide what goes in the container.

2. Two packages, one principle: arrive at a ready home

The Guided package at €1,190 covers the search through to your signed lease. The Entrusted package at €2,190 adds complete installation: utilities activated, administrative steps coordinated, and keys handed over, so your shipment arrives at a home that is already running. For the practical steps that follow arrival, from electricity contracts to health coverage, our administrative checklist for expats in Paris covers the full sequence.

The cheapest packing list is the one written after the lease is signed.