Who Ships a 2CV to France?

By Michael Williams….

In 2024 my wife, our loyal hound Jim and I moved to France from California. The first question from English or French speakers is why (pourqoui)? A whole basket of reasons… As I’m writing this for a Citroën publication you can imagine our possible interest in all things French though.

In 2018 we decided we wanted to make this leap. Work and that pandemic prolonged the jump but in 2023 we found a home to buy in the Pyrenees Atlantiques region. That precipitated a sell off of many, many possessions. We had five cars… My recently refinished and dear D Special was one of the things to sell alas. No garage at the new home so no weather-proof storage and no place for work. I did decide to ship our 69 Alfa Romeo Spider and our 65 2CV (Belgian production) though. That’s why this story is here. Aha! Why ship coals to Newcastle? Well, the 2CV was a bit like family (as is the Alfa) and I had just done much renovation of it (new chassis among other works) so it was in prime condition. I didn’t want to buy a used one in France of possibly dubious quality.

We shipped the 2CV to Le Havre in a container to function as an integral part of our actual move, while the Alfa and household goods we didn’t sell were shipped in another container to Marseille. 

We were taking our large border collie Jim with us. We were worried about how this ordeal would affect him so we built our trek to France around him. He had to travel in a large crate. What do you do with the crate when you arrive in France? You can’t just leave it curbside. A rental vehicle big enough to carry our luggage AND a huge crate was ridiculously expensive so the 2CV became our ferry from Paris to our new home.

I had a spare trunk lid with a luggage rack. I tested it and made some tweaks so it could carry the huge crate. Then I packed the car with our camping gear (so we would have a place to sleep and basic kitchen supplies) while awaiting our shipped goods.

The plan (which worked as planned) was for me to fly to Paris two days before Tamara and Jim, then take the bus to Le Havre (train service was not convenient), collect the car in Le Havre, and drive back toward Charles De Gaulle Airport near Paris. Tamara and Jim meanwhile, flew Air France non-stop from SFO to CDG. This limited the amount of time Jim had to be locked in the crate (it was summer time). Even at that he was still in the crate for about 13 hours.

I had a few issues getting french customs to release the car in Le Havre, but once done it started right up and I was on my way toward Paris. I spent the night near CDG and the morning of Tamara and Jim’s arrival I tracked their flight and once it was nearly on the ground, I left for CDG.

We hired a VIP service to escort Tamara to the curb (best 200€ ever spent) as she had to get her luggage and crate (with Jim still inside) through customs. The VIP service and baggage staff made that a breeze. I pulled up to the curb at CDG and Tamara, Jim and VIP staff rolled out a minute or two later. Jim was happy to get released and none-the-worse-for-wear.

We strapped the crate on the back and headed toward a charity shop at edge of Paris to donate the crate. After that it was a leisurely three day drive to SW France in a 2CV with California plates (“what the hell?”).

Once at our new home we used “Genie” (as she became quickly known around the area) to pick up all manner of goods. Appliances, armoires, coat racks, tables, more tables, bicycles, hardware, you name it.

We live near a main route through the mountains and the car is visible in the carport. When we meet locals, it turns out they know where we live because they’ve noticed this old duck (and later our Alfa) conspicuously parked.

We are very happy we shipped Genie here. She’s been a great tool, a great fellow adventurer, and also an ambassador.

Besides all the “truck” duty she does we also use her for day trips into the mountains and we also attended the french national 2CV meet last summer in Cap d’Agde. We all know how much attention the 2CV and DS get in public in NA… well, it’s just as much here. In the US it was either “what is that?”, “Is that a VW?” or “ah, what memories of my time in France this reminds me of.” Here it is pure nostalgia for the french. You see parents pointing out the car to their kids as you drive by. You can imagine the stories.

Genie passed her technical inspection with flying colors (twice). The only trick has been registration. She has a 602 cc engine/disc brake drivetrain. Registering an imported car in France is a bit tricky. For an old-timer you want ‘voiture de collection’ status but that requires photos of various bits of the car. The car must be completely stock. Upgrades are not allowed. She was flunked the first time. With some changes to her ID she passed. I prefer not to go into those details. 😉