car hire uk france uk

[garyg]

i am currently working outside uk and am flying into into london in mid december for a two weeks holiday to our new house in domfront

i plan to pick up a hire car and buy a car load of stuff from uk (john lewis, B&Q etc) to take to france as i dont know my way around french shops or departmental stores and only have two weeks to spare.

i would like to pick up a uk left hand drive for travelling in uk and swap this at the tunnel or ferry terminal for a right hand french hire car - then vice versa on the way back in two weeks time.

this ideas seems alien to Avis and i am told this is impossible

-- does anyone have any ideas how it can be done...? i expect to pick up about six suitcases worth of goods (to begin to set up the house and make it habitable for my stay.) regards gary

[ruggie]

There should be no problem finding a car for the French part of the journey. That's a normal return-to-base hire. The two problems that you have are:

1. Pick-and-drop charges from LHR to a ferry terminal will be quite high.
2. (The really difficult bit). How do you get yourself, and more baggage than you can carry, from the UK drop point to the ferry itself and from the ferry to the car pickup point in France? Taxis might help, but you'd still have to get between the ferry terminal and the boat unaided.

There are several UK companies that use small vans to take part loads from the UK and deliver them to your home in France. Some even pick up prepaid stuff from big UK stores. I think your best bet is to search the Web for them and give yourself a day's slack to get to your French home ahead of them.

[garyg]

thanks ruggie, think you are right. i have found i can order online from john lewis and have stuff delivered so i can do that and just need to find a small company who can pick up other items and deliver for me - so will fly into france direct - which is a lot easier. alternatively i can also spend time looking over the shops in france i'm sure duvets etc can be bought for ready money. rgds