Plants from the UK

[trevor]

Are there regulations / restrictions about taking garden plants from the UK to france?

[Cassis]

As long as they are for your own use and not for resale, pretty much not.  Only restrictions when we came over 2 years ago were on oaks, rhododendrons and azaleas because of sudden oak death in the UK.  We had a LWB high roof Transit full of plants which we drove over with and the douaniers had a quick shuftie at the port then waved us through.  Here's the French Douane view on the subject:

http://www.douane.gouv.fr/finc.asp?page=langues/fiche3gb.htm&cusnum=989

Skip everything else and go right to the bottom of the page.

Phil

[Catalpa]

There used to be a proscribed plant list - I've just looked but can't find it - and odd plants like cotoneasters were on it. I did bring back a couple of cotoneasters earlier this year but they were labelled on the packaging as conforming to EU regulations. We've bought a lot of plants over - some things like roses can be much better value bought in the UK.

[Cassis]

The proscribed plants list can vary according to whether the French authorities think there are any nasty plant lurgies in the UK that they want ot keep out of France.  Hence the oak/rhodo thing a few years ago.  There are none listed on the Douanier site at the minute, but maybe there never are.  Your average douanier wouldn't know a cotoneaster from an easter bunny.  The DEFRA site used to have the details of dodgy plants.  I posted the URL somewhere once but can't remember where.

Phil

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Cassis"]Your average douanier wouldn't know a cotoneaster from an easter bunny.  The DEFRA site used to have the details of dodgy plants.  I posted the URL somewhere once but can't remember where. [/quote]

An exceptionally accurate observation [:D] When I arrived at Ouistreham with a big box of misc plants incl cotoneasters on the front passenger seat (which was otherwise empty[:)]) the douanier looked at my passport and handed it back through the passenger window through a small forest of cotoneaster stems...