Regulations for visiting France

[st599]

Not just ports, Eurostar in London is problematic too, it doesn't have a customs area so you can't get Carnets dealt with.

 

[Transvemare]

No need to make an appointment., Just turn up and the very friendly receptionist will call the appropriate people down.

As lightwave says, just a 5 min walk East from Marina du Chateau. But it’s 30 mins from Marina Moulin Blanc.

But Marina du Moulin Blanc is much nicer, friendlier and more helpful than Chateau and its raucous early morning disco and adjacent yobbery - lobbing beer bottles over the security fence and aiming at the boats is favoured sport. There's a good 10 minute bus service into the centre of Brest, plus the Moulin Blanc area has all the back-up services - two big chandlers, one of the biggest sail makers in France, riggers and excellent engineer (Bruno and team at Brest Marine Services) and the incomparable and unique Tour du Monde bar. Fish and chips good if you're bored with moules, but they do those too. Other restos are available to hand. MB may be half an hour or so further up the Rade but is more sheltered with a lovely (from mid-tide) sandy beach manicured each morning by pistey--beasties. Great for the kids but manky at low water. Also, MB staff are all fluent English speakers and will help with formalities including douanes/PAF.
Brest is, of course, the first official entry port west of Roscoff, but arrivals at l'Aber Wrac'h and Camaret are also perfectly legal and permitted.
There's a well-worn groove between Brest/Camaret to the Isles of Scilly which is a favourite of our locals, and several of our marina neighbours have already been there and back so far this season (May-July 2022) with no problems with formalities.
Hope we have similar fuss-free experience when, after a dozen years keeping the boat in Camaret and then Brest, we are forced by Brexit to leave and return to the disunited kingdom's blighted shores!

 

[Lightwave395]

I assume I was lucky, I stayed in the Chateau marina for a whole week albeit in 2019 weatherbound and didn't experience any of the issues you mention above, seemed handy for shops, experienced a Breton music festival on the Saturday (daytime) and the SNCF station was 10 mins walk.
The staff spoke english and there was a good choice of fooderies and no yobbery, quite a peaceful week in all except for the 30-40 knot winds...

 

[Glisferox]

Not just ports, Eurostar in London is problematic too, it doesn't have a customs area so you can't get Carnets dealt with.

A bit OT, but that is an extremely useful bit of information. The Eurostar terminal not handling carnets is a depressing illustration of our lack of preparedness for this.

 

[Slowboat35]

Once again, how does one find out the email address to send the préavis form to, or is the Cherbourg address good for all?

 

[alexincornwall]

Apologies if this has been covered somewhere else which I’ve missed, but my brain has turned to mush trying to keep up to date on this.

If I’m departing Scilly Isles for Brittany/French Atlantic is Brest my best and only option as port of entry to complete paperwork ? …..Could I complete the documentation from L’Abervrac’h ?

I’m less bothered about getting the passport stamped as we are only away a month; more just gettingour entry registered.

I really don’t want to head down to Roscoff unless the winds are pushing us down that way.

Thanks in advance.

You won't be able to check in at L'Aberwrach but you could land there and take a bus/taxi to Brest. Otherwise your next official port heading Atlantic way will be Brest. On from there and it'll be St Nazaire, Les Sables and La Rochelle.

We've just returned from a three week trip checking in at Les Sables (hassle free, but the office is a good few miles out of town), checking out at Brest (they asked for Part 1/SSR by the way - Les Sables didn't want to know about the boat).

 

[Bathdave]

Once again, how does one find out the email address to send the préavis form to, or is the Cherbourg address good for all?

Google is your friend

I have found the port-specific PAF on the website for each port I have thought about

the form is the same but the email is different for each port, and is included on the form for that port. you need to send it to both the customs office responsible for that port of entry and the port office

I have saved the form on my iPad, I edit it, look up the email addresses for that port on google and send the form to both addresses... I don’t bother updating the wrong email address (ie from an earlier notification ) embedded in my copy form, I just make sure I send it to the right addresses

it’s worked out fine so far

 

[Slowboat35]

Can there possibly be a more demeaning or patronisingly smug response to a simple question as the one above?
Charlie, no, of course I'd never have considered Google nor even using the internet! What do you suppose I've been doing? Writing letters to my local library?
I asked a simple question because I explained I had not found out the answer (wow- surprise!).
I have not managed to find a syllable about private boats entering any port,let alone an email address - which - strange as it may seem - is why I asked the question...
What the digamma is a PAF? Clearly you know...not all of us are so endowed with such knowlege.

Surely ther is a list of these addresses somewhere?

And id someone has actually managed to discover where such info is hidden on a port's website perhaps thay might indulge the rest of us mere mortals and explain whereabouts on a website we might find it...?
Is that really so hard to do?

 

[capnsensible]

Can there possibly be a more demeaning or patronisingly smug response to a simple question as the one above?
Charlie, no, of course I'd never have considered Google nor even using the internet! What do you suppose I've been doing? Writing letters to my local library?
I asked a simple question because I explained I had not found out the answer (wow- surprise!).
I have not managed to find a syllable about private boats entering any port,let alone an email address - which - strange as it may seem - is why I asked the question...
What the digamma is a PAF? Clearly you know...not all of us are so endowed with such knowlege.

Surely ther is a list of these addresses somewhere?

And id someone has actually managed to discover where such info is hidden on a port's website perhaps thay might indulge the rest of us mere mortals and explain whereabouts on a website we might find it...?
Is that really so hard to do?

Yeah. Yours......

 

[Slowboat35]

Honestly! You couldn't make this up! You ask a simple question and get patronised out of nowhere by some smug smart-alec who can't be bothered to give an answer and then the two oh-so predictable resident goons pitch in.

Has anyone here ever actually tried to find (even via this mysterious "Google" thing...) the email address to send these forms to? I suspect, from the absence of useful responses that the answer is "no".


What is the difficulty in answering a simple, politely put question without reverting to this sort of childishness?

 

[Bathdave]

Bizarre response - I have a helpful and factual response no smugness whatsoever and no demeaning intended

I find your response very patronising

I explained

- you can’t send it to cherbourg if that is not the port you are going to ( a factual and constructive response to your question

- I explained how to find the email addresses of the port you want to visit

- I shared useful practical information on how I complete the formalities

- if you bothered to read this thread you would know a PAF is the pre-Avis form that French customs require you to file

I believe my contributions to this forum are constructive and positive - take a moment to read them - and I find your response frankly pathetic

so just “”””” off and work it out fir yourself

 

[Bathdave]

Honestly! You couldn't make this up! You ask a simple question and get patronised out of nowhere by some smug smart-alec who can't be bothered to give an answer and then the two oh-so predictable resident goons pitch in.

Has anyone here ever actually tried to find (even via this mysterious "Google" thing...) the email address to send these forms to? I suspect, from the absence of useful responses that the answer is "no".


What is the difficulty in answering a simple, politely put question without reverting to this sort of childishness?

Where’s the ridicule ?

 

[Bathdave]

Yeah. Yours......

What can you say ?

 

[Slowboat35]

Bizarre response - I have a helpful and factual response no smugness whatsoever and no demeaning intended

I find your response very patronising

I explained

- you can’t send it to cherbourg if that is not the port you are going to ( a factual and constructive response to your question

- I explained how to find the email addresses of the port you want to visit

- I shared useful practical information on how I complete the formalities

- if you bothered to read this thread you would know a PAF is the pre-Avis form that French customs require you to file

I believe my contributions to this forum are constructive and positive - take a moment to read them - and I find your response frankly pathetic

so just “”””” off and work it out fir yourself

I asked a perfectly sensible question that merely required an answer, if you had one.
The response "google is your friend" is patronising, smug and utterly unhelpful.
You did NOT explain I couldn't send it to Cherbourg. You explained where I could send it, if I had the address which is not the same thing at all, is it?
Thanks, I know how to complete the formalities, but that isn't what I asked for either, is it?
I have been googling for two hours now and failed to find mention of PAF addresses for any Normandy port at all - except Carteret which I wasn't looking for.( My confusion over PAF was because it seems more usually called a preavis...)
Ports' own websites seem to deal with commercial shipping and ferries only. Ports de Plaisance resolutely fail to list the email address, though they may give a street address. Police aux Frontieres don't seem to be accessible by internet search.

This info is very hard to find - hence the question and the frustration at people giving unhelpful and eliptical answers.

 

[DJE]

Try this site. For Manche area.

There's a link like this for each port which takes you to the form and a description of the procedure.

 

[Slowboat35]

Thank you DJE, at least someone here has some manners and decency.

Let's hope there's a similar site that covers the rest of the channel ports eastwards.
It's hard to imagine how one would have worded a search for preavis and found this site via a search engine...

 

[dolabriform]

A wide range of secondary ports in Normandy have just now reached a deal with Customs that they can accept entry from outside Schengen, via an emailed PAF


Dielette has issued the following e-mail, which appears to apply to

IN LA MANCHE :

Port Diélette
Port-bail

IN LE CALVADOS :

Deauville-Trouville
Courseulles-sur-Mer
Dives/Mer – Cabourg – Houlgate
Grandcamp-Maisy
Isigny/Mer
Port-en-Bessin

Dear Yachtmen,

We are very pleased to inform you that La Manche and Le Calvados Customs have just decided to make Brexit procedure more flexible for unofficial border crossing points like Port Dielette.

It is, indeed, now possible for pleasure boats coming from a port outside Schengen area to arrive at and leave directly an unofficial border crossing point

For Dielette, just sending the editable form attached (new one) to the Harbour office : portdielette@lecotentin.fr, 24 hrs before arriving and just before departure in case of a less 24 hrs stay (for longer stays, 24hrs minimum). The form will then be transmitted by us to Port Authorities and Customs.

You'll find, attached to this mail, one form called " Dielette" that you can use to come to our marina ; and another one called "others", that you can fill to visit another concerned marina.

Port Diélette

Le Bureau du Port

Thanks for this, do you have a link to the new form?

Edit:
I found a link to it here:
Dielette – digimap.gg

 

[dslittle]

Has anyone here ever actually tried to find (even via this mysterious "Google" thing...) the email address to send these forms to? I suspect, from the absence of useful responses that the answer is "no".

I have

 

[ashtead]

You should find a copy of the PAF on your chosen marina website or just mail the marina for a copy and I’m sure they will direct you. They don’t want this bureaucratic process to hit their letting income after all I might suspect .

 

[WindyWindyWindy]