Importng shotguns

[Lachouette]

I know this has been covered to some extent already, but we'd be grateful for some advice and information from someone who actually managed to bring shotguns into France.

My husband has just been given the family heirloom 12 bore and .410 shotguns, both now registered in his name and on his UK shotgun licence. Thames Valley Police have also added the guns to a European Firearms Pass. We asked TVP if they knew how we should take them into France and they suggested we contact the dti, which we did. They told us we needed an import licence from a French police station and we duly sent the sellers of our house down to Eymoutiers to find out for us. They knew nothing but eventually discovered that we needed to speak to the Douanes in Paris! A conversation with the Douanes tested my French - after all, school doesn't prepare you for a conversation about import licences for firearms. By the end of my telephonic trip around the building I knew that to apply for a licence we must be domiciled in France, which we will be in 3 weeks and that my husband must belong to a shooting or hunting club.

Has anyone had a simpler experience than this, or been told something else?

Thanks.

Jan