Two Dogs and a Suitcase: Clueless in Charente (Sarah Jane's Travel Memoirs Series, #2) by Sarah Jane Butfield

Author:Sarah Jane Butfield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: France, travel, travel memoir, Expats, Renovation, Gardening, Cooking, Family, Dogs, Writing, Author, Charente, parenting, step-parenting, women expats in France, Australia, Mothers and daughters, Frugal living, Author Sarah Jane Butfield
Publisher: Sarah Jane Butfield
Published: 2014-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Hobart to Le Havre

Part of our preparations to move from Hobart to Chirac included deciding what to keep. The items we chose to keep would be sent by sea freight. In hindsight, and as ever shining a positive light on this process, we were lucky we did not own many belongings, or so we thought. It is surprising how quickly the boxes fill with just clothes, shoes and my precious books from charity shops.

“You paid cents for those, is it worth paying hundreds of dollars to take them to France?” Nigel said, on more than one occasion as we packed, repacked and divided our belongings into piles of ‘to go,’ ‘to donate to charity’ or ‘to sell.’

“I am not losing my books again, where I go they go.”

I started my book collection again for the first time after the floods, and there would be no more starting again for my collection, or me.

By the time we had finished, there were thirty boxes and one bicycle box left at John’s house for collection by the courier company. As promised, two days after our departure the boxes were collected. They were then taken to the Hobart depot for weighing and documenting ready for movement to Melbourne before heading off by sea to France. We arranged for the boxes to travel overland on arrival in France to Lyon our nearest pick up point, four hours from our house. The estimated timeframe for arrival in France was three to four months from leaving Melbourne. As they left Hobart at the end of September, that meant they left Melbourne in early October. Therefore, arrival in France was expected in January 2013. Apart from receiving the invoice to pay once they had been weighed there was nothing else for us to do until January 2013, or so we thought. On 27th November, during our regular Tuesday email checking session at McDonalds, St. Junien, I receive an email from a French freight agent in Le Havre. In their best-typed English the message, which looks and reads as if it has been copied and pasted from Google translate without even adding my name, says:

“Dear,

To delivered your cargo in our warehouse of Lyon CFS you have to: Paid the arrival charges for an amount of 441.48 euros in cash or by swift bank. Custom cleared your goods by a forwarding agent as: Miro: 02.35.51.81.81. Only before the customs clearing of your shipment and only after the payment of arrival charges we will deliver your cargo to our Lyon warehouse. Kindly note than you have only 7 days of free time since the unstuffing days in our warehouse in Le Havre to paid and customs cleared your goods. After the 7 days of free time some, storage charges will be bill to you. Cordialement / Best Regards”

I go outside and try to call the logistics office. I need to find out when the seven days started and how to pay the fees, but my mobile credit ran out mid enquiry.

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