French red tape

When we moved to France we registered our vehicles, Normal cars classic cars no problem until we got to the camper ,despite being registered as a motor caravan with dvla everyone we spoke to said you have no chance the French don't do modified vehicles .We downloaded the list of requirements for the habitation area of the van (87 pages) and started working through the list after about page 10 we gave up and said lets just try and register it and see what happens .We instructed the agent we had used to register the cars and he began the process, we where amazed when he emailed and said it had been registered ,how ever our joy soon ended when the cg (V5) arrived and it stated van 3 seats , even worse we where told that it was a highly modified uncertified vehicle and was illegal to use. Now then the fun bit started

First we had to have a Gas and ventilation check we where given the names of 3 companies 2 failed to respond , we booked an appointment paid the fee of 375 euros and 2 weeks later the inspector arrived. An hour later after doing a gas pressure check, appliance check, checking gas drop out vents, operation of shut off valves and the crash detection valve he informed us that it had failed on 2 items 1 no sticker by lpg filler saying gas appliances have to be turned off before refilling with lpg (never spotted one on a French camper) and 2 not enough ventilation. when asked about the ventilation he explained it was not the number of windows ,but about free ventilation when the van was closed up, we have 3 roof vents ,the one in the shower room does not count as it partitioned off from the main living area, the 400x400 front vent is motorhome spec so has a rubber seal in it (caravans don't) to stop wind noise when driving .The rear vent a maxifan has permanent venting but did not provide enough air flow for the size of the living accommodation , we discussed this with the inspector and he said if the rubber seal was removed from the front vent it would bring it up to spec , the rubber was hastily removed ,a sign was written and selotaped by the filler (now replaced with a sticker) and the van passed. that evening we received the 10 page report with pictures giving the results ,the hard copy arrived a few days later .

We had to change the electrical sockets as the rules state eu approved and of course uk is no longer in the eu

Now it was time for form filling

first get the van weighed , front axle ,rear axle, whole van empty and loaded armed with these figures we stared trying to work out the from , you add the max permissible weight of the front and rear axle together to get the maximum weight to work out your calculations except that figure is above the vehicle maximum design carrying weight (but hey this France) after several attempts I slung paper in the bin and declared it can stay on english plates. This is where Di stepped in she spent days working out what they wanted and eventually got a set of figures that looked ok ,next came drawings of the van showing locations of fixtures ,gas and water tanks ,size and location and weight capacity of storage units , by now the file was getting pretty thick and we had to send it all to the dreal along with copies of the fridge,cooker,and heating manuals and the gas report after several weeks and emails requesting more info which was interesting as there mailbox has a 3 mb upload limit we where invited to make an appointment

with the Dreal (government inspectors) On the appointed day we drive down (2 hours away) because of covid we had to park in an allocated bay leave the vehicle and watch from a safe distance, first thing the inspector did was to measure the front cab door opening (standard peugeot ) where thinking this is not a good start. Finally we were called over and asked where is the fire extinguisher, in the wardrobe I replied , would you like to see it, no was the reply, you need a sticker to show where it is , has it passed ,no I will send a report Fast forward 6 weeks when the report finally arrives and as promised its a fail No sticker to indicate where the fire extinguisher is ,no sticker to say shut the windows before driving away and main thing was the seats .we only have 2 front seats but as van was registered with 3 as it left factory he was taking the couch in the back as the 3rd seat which does not have conform , worst than that the jaguar heated seats we had fitted had never been crash tested in a peugeot and would have to be removed ,even more bad news the expensive crash tested and certified seat swivels, were a no, because there certification is for a fiat ducato we all know its the same van with the same seats but no . The inspector also wanted a form completed by the person who had installed the truma heating/water system stating it all complied ( despite this being checked and signed off by the gas inspector) he then gave us 3 weeks to rectify and get a new appointment or we would have to restart the process As Mr Mannering said don't panic.

Although it failed we where pleasantly surprised, there is so much detail to consider like all the furniture has to have radius edges ,the windows have to have eu numbers on them set distances from the cooker to other things etc , it was lucky we had used a 2018 caravan as a donor for most of the parts so they all complied

We had to buy a drivers seat from the uk and a drivers seat from France to give us a pair of single peugeot seats these where fitted , all necessary paper work was obtained and summitted for approval. A new appointment was duly booked and we attended, the inspector looked at the 2 single seats and had to go and consult his office when he returned he inspected the fire extinguisher sticker and then wanted to see the extinguisher itself it was new and above the spec so all was well, much to our relief he pronounced it had passed and would do the paper work asap , having taken 6 weeks to do his first report I was a bit surprised to get an email the next day, I nervously opened it expecting the worst only to find it was the approval stating our self converted camper was now officially registered as a caravanne in France it took us 15 months but we finally done the so called impossible