Shipping

[felschurch]

What is our experience and how/ when and where?

[annettecinca]

I'm not quite sure what you mean--shipping things home from Paris? If that's it, someone here has done that. She said you can buy boxes from the post office and ship as much as you can stuff into it for a flat rate, but the cost escapes me. Maybe someone else will remember more details.

[Jody]

I've never done it from France but have done from the UK. There you can buy the boxes at the PO as Annette described. It took several weeks for us to get them though.

I recall someone mentioning it was the same in France too.

I know you can do it FedEx but the cost is really prohibitive.

[Becky (Berkeleytravelers)]

I think it was mtngrl's trip reports that talked about this subject (not sure, however). I do seem to recall that there was a flat rate per box, with different prices for various box sizes. Try looking in the Paris trip reports.

[toutou]

You can always go to your nearest La Poste and inquire about shipping.

Or, you can have a look here (French equivalent of Fed Ex). You can enter the size and weight of your package, the address it is going to and the site will bring up your cost and shipping options. Use them all the time.

www.chronopost.fr/transport-express/livraison-colis/accueil

[trechic]

No shipping to the US from that site given above.

[felschurch]

Found Mtngrl's post . Here is the gist:

She bought XL box--international shipping--12x8x18--flat fee---E38 to US--regardless of weight--took 12 days to arrive--

Thanks for the help--this is excellent info

[annettecinca]

Thanks! I had looked for that post a few weeks ago and couldn't find it (actually, I probably could have found it if I hadn't gotten distracted reading some of the fun old posts...)

[ladyjicky]

Two years ago my husband and I were in Paris and went to Clignancourt marche aux puces and bought an italian ironwork chandelier that was perfect for our kitchen! White with yellow lemons and green leaves. We cannot remember how much it cost to send to Australia but it was not that expensive (we think around the 50 Aust dollar mark - went surface mail ) and took a couple of months to get here. We had to get a box to fit and the ones at the Post Office did not. Steve went to the little supermarket down the road and got a box there. Yes, he took the chandelier with him - the French must think we are either mad or very economical! LOL . It arrived in good condition - unlike mail from Mexico that our customs had ripped open and broken looking for - well, you know what. So, the French post did a great job and they did not mind our "do it yourself" box either!

[toutou]

trechic said:

No shipping to the US from that site given above.

Yes, you can ship from France to the USA using the Chronopost website. I just did it two weeks ago and have done it many times before.

I just went to the site this morning to make sure nothing is down and it worked just fine. You can choose the departure country - in this case France and use the code postal for your location in France, then under destination, you can use the drop down menu to choose Etats Unis and continue from there. It works perfectly fine.

I will say that it is a very expensive option for shipping to the USA, but it does work and it is within 48 hours and you do have a tracking number and they do send you an email when the package is delivered and they do insure it...

If you need assistance using the site, just yell. Otherwise, they have hundreds of offices all over France where you can take your package, ready to ship, or buy their packing material and pack it up and ship it from there..

[dep0515]

Shipping from La Poste is very easy. We followed mtngrl's advice, which was very accurate. Be forewarned, though, that the XL box fills up VERY quickly!

We shipped our box on Saturday, October 13 and hope to be seeing it soon. I will report back as soon as we get it.

[mez]

dep0515 said:

Shipping from La Poste is very easy. We followed mtngrl's advice, which was very accurate. Be forewarned, though, that the XL box fills up VERY quickly!

We shipped our box on Saturday, October 13 and hope to be seeing it soon. I will report back as soon as we get it.

I also shipped stuff back to Aust. It was really easy. I took my big bag laden with stuff to the post office, where I managed in half French/half miming and pointing to get an XL box. The woman behind the counter also helped me pack it and fill in the customs forms. The box does fill up very quickly. It's also supposedly got a 7kg limit. My box weighed over 8 kgs, but she let it pass. It took about a week to get to Australia. For 38 euro, it's the cheapest option anywhere in Europe that I found.

Mez.

[toutou]

Yes Mez, that is far cheaper than Chronopost would be. Good deal.

[susanb]

Thanks for the info. This is good news for me!
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