Stan Streason Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I will own my first french property (second home) by the end of the month and I am sure that there are people on here who have been through all this before so a number of silly questions spread over a number of sections, if you will indulge me.I have been working on the relative costs of driving or flying (Deux Sevres) and for me a 2-4 day trip is cheaper to fly, 4-7 days is marginally cheaper to drive (although because car hire is virtually unchanged between 4 and 7 days it is marginal and may not be worth the effort) - anything over 7 days is a definate drive. I have a spare car at home and would love to leave it in France but our new house is about 50 miles from the nearest airport.My question is therefore does anyone know of any cost efficient long term parking within striking distance of the 4 Ryanair served local airports (La Rochelle, Poitiers, Limoges or Angouleme)? Alternatively whats the cheapest way to regularly get from the airport to my house if I assume airport taxis are expensive?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerise Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 If you have room to leave the car at your home in France, have you got a kind friend or neighbour who would drive to the airport in it to pick you up? Payment in baked beans/whisky or whatever else you can bring them from UK. Or (whisper it) real money. After all it your car and petrol only need to compensate them for their time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick16 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 If it's not too late to give a reply, there is a free car park at Angouleme alongside the airport. Ryanair only have 3 flights a week there from Stanstead from April until October [check my dates], so for most of the time it would seem the airport is unused, and I don't think I would want my car left for any period of time. Bergerac, on the other hand, does have long term secure parking, at relatively small cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Isn't this what we used to do? Now you must re-register the car in France. Cannot have the old British plates on display for too long these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Have you studied the rail network ? Is there a bus link Airport to station. most likely will be ...then train to near your house. ...taxi home . or leave car at station if its safe enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Hello "Stan". I hope that your purchase goes well.Long term parking at French airports is not as expensive as UK airports. The reason why there are few places to park cars outside airports is because there is little demand for this.Having said that, if the car is going to be left there for months, the cheapest way is likely to be paying for someone to take you there. Where we live, there are some Brits who need to earn a bit of extra and so act as a kind of unofficial taxi service. Until I found this out, I did use a taxi firm and discovered that, if booked in advance, the fare was very reasonable as they would get a return fare at the same time.The great thing about leaving a French registered car in your garden is that there is no road tax, MOTs (CTs) are only every 2 years and people think that you are in residence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 [quote user="Cathy"]The great thing about leaving a French registered car in your garden is that there is no road tax, MOTs (CTs) are only every 2 years and people think that you are in residence.[/quote] What would be even better would be to buy an articulated lorry and use that Park that in your garden or better still across next door's garden, you could have any foreign plates and nobody would care a hoot[6]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Streason Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 Thanks for the comments everyone. In my naevite I probably didnt think through the effect of legally having a uk car in France the whole time. Presumably I would need special insurance and take it back annually for tax and MOT.There seem to be mixed experiances on here about how easy (or not) it may be to re register the car in France. Once I work out taxi costs etc I may just decide to buy a small car in France.Thanks again for the comments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearly Retired (I am now) Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Stan said: "I may just decide to buy a small car in France."I thought about this option too, but the lottery numbers didn't come up - have you seen the prices of second hand cars in France ?. I'm still working on Plan B which is to take a cheap RHD but French manufactured car from England to France and register it there.I've got the car - now for the more difficult bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 [quote user="Nearly Retired"] I'm still working on Plan B which is to take a cheap RHD but French manufactured car from England to France and register it there.I've got the car - now for the more difficult bit.[/quote]Courage mon brave - I brought my 9 year old Citroen RHD car over from the UK and reregistered it here when we came to France in 2005; the procedure was a doddle. The only downside was the cost of the new headlights; but the high cost of those was due to buying genuine Citroen ones via the local garage.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 You'd be surprised but most cars these days are not country specific. [:D]Just make sure the RHD drive model you take with you was sold in your new country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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