Day: March 1, 2026

The CMA CGM Cedrus made it into Barcelona at 03.50 pm today so should be able to get into Marseille on 04 March with my new mini-excavator.

So despite the other problems I have to deal with I’ve got to press on with building its garage so it’s ready for when it arrives. Today started chilly with quite thick fog and I thought that I’d get little or no work done but around lunch time the fog cleared in about 10 seconds flat and it turned into a lovely spring day. So with no time to waste I got cracking and by the end of the day I got the basic structure of the garage up.

The beam down the centre of the roof is only there temporarily as the garage will have a pitched roof to drain rainwater away. I’ll be working on that tomorrow and when it’s done the ridge beam will be higher. Also the timber across the front is only there to hold the frame in place and won’t be there when the garage is finished.

I was going to bang lengths of angle-iron into the ground at each corner and screw the frame to them but I’ve now dropped that idea. As shown in the next pic, I already had four long tent pegs made out of 12 mm reinforcing iron so I drilled the bottom frame rails in each corner and secured them to the ground through the holes using the tent pegs. I think that’ll stop the garage blowing away in the wind.

After thinking about the problem, I’ve decided to use what is referred to here as ‘Panneau Agglomeré’ for the walls. It’s a kind of chip board made out of compressed wood shavings and is usually used for under-tile roofing and internal flooring. There are two types, internal and external but both are quite inexpensive with the internal being the cheaper of the two.

Shown below is an image of a very old sheet that I originally used to patch the floor in my large trailer. That was about 4 or more years ago and it’s been out in the weather the whole time since then. As the garage is only intended to be a temporary structure for a year or so the material should be more than good enough for the job.

I’ll also cover the roof with it and then put some roofing felt on top of that which I’ve hung onto since I built my last ‘abri’ in the garden of my old house in Plazac. I always knew it would eventually come in handy 😀

As I type this on Sunday morning, the CMA CGM Cedrus that’s bringing my excavator to Marseille is standing off Barcelona, its last port of call before arriving in Marseille.

It left Valencia yesterday at 11.23 am and was scheduled to dock in Barcelona at 06.00 am this morning. I think the reason why it’s still waiting offshore is because as shown below, the area of the port at Barcelona that handles containers appears to be quite small and it’s possibly a bit too congested at the moment to allow the CMA CGM Cedrus to enter.

But that’s the least of my concerns. My main problem at the moment is French Customs. Before I even ordered my excavator I made enquiries as long ago as last summer about the formalities and procedures of bringing in an excavator from China. I was assured that I could handle everything myself without the need for an agent and was advised what duty and tax would be involved. All that was left, therefore, was to discover the mechanics of actually making the customs declaration itself, which as the owner of the goods I am entitled to do.

And that’s what I’ve been trying to do. I have an account on the French Customs’ web site and have searched all over it to find a link allowing me to make an on line customs declaration but without success. I can find lots of links telling me all about the relevant legislation in which I have absolutely no interest. All I want to do is actually make an actual declaration but a link for that I cannot find.

So I re-contacted French Customs with the relevant information about my purchase but instead of someone just providing me with a link I’ve got more irrelevant general information, mainly about the legislation. I’ve then been fobbed off and told to contact another office, only to get the same treatment all over again on doing so. And so it has gone on. For weeks.

It’s almost as though they’re trying to prevent me making the declaration myself. The most useless and rubbish reply I’ve received was a curt instruction to ‘get an agent who would arrange for all of the duties and taxes to be paid’. And this after I’d explained that (a) the customs reference under which the excavator has been shipped is non-dutiable ie no import duty is payable and (b) as a private buyer I have already paid 20% VAT at time of purchase, as required under the French tax regulations ie no TVA is payable either.

So no further payments should be due on importation of my excavator, meaning that the filing of a customs declaration for it should be relatively simple and straightforward. I’ll continue grappling with customs this week but time is now becoming much more pressing as the excavator will arrive in Marseille on 04 March and be available for ‘de-porting’ on around 07 March.

I’ve been given another office to contact which I will do tomorrow and this time I’ll just demand the necessary forms so I can file a paper declaration. And if I get nowhere with that I’ll find out where the closest French Customs office is and go there in person during the week. And that still leaves the logistics of picking up the machine from the port to be resolved.