May 7, 2020
A week ago today, I was reunited with my belongings from the United States. Many thanks go to a team of individuals at Gentle Giant Moving Company in Boston, Doug Wiviott at Rainier Overseas Movers near Seattle, WA, and Jennifer Sloan at European Relocation Services in Marseille, France. They all worked smoothly and responsively together; each hand-off along the way was well coordinated. I never once felt as if I was working with separate companies.
Thanks to the careful packing of the team of Gentle Giants in Boston, first in February 2019 when they packed and moved me (using a crane at times) out of my condo in Charlestown, Massachusetts, into their storage warehouse, and then, almost exactly a year later, when they packed my belongings into a container to be shipped to France, everything arrived intact. Not one chip, crack, not even a light bulb (which unfortunately turned out to be unusable here in France!) was broken!
Doug and his team at Rainier were incredibly easy to work with over the Internet, extremely responsive and clear in their communications. Both Doug and Jennifer patiently guided me through the lengthy documentation process required for international shipments by governmental, transportation and customs officials. They made that complicated process which could have been a nightmare fairly easy. Doug made sure the container arrived on time for loading by Gentle Giant, arranged for the container to be loaded on the ship in Boston, and then worked with Jennifer to organize delivery in France. Though his work behind the scenes was invisible to me, except for our frequent email correspondence, Doug provided exceptional and, in my opinion, most reasonable service!
Of course, no one could have expected the coronavirus epidemic which began to seriously spread into France and the United States just as the ship was scheduled to leave Boston. Nor could anyone have foreseen that the French government would pass restrictions on moving companies just before the ship arrived in Le Havre. I am ever so thankful that Jennifer, a patient, supportive and caring American, who speaks perfect French, was there to handle the unexpected twists and turns required for unloading the container, for arranging for unplanned-for storage in a warehouse in Paris, and then for further managing the delivery of my belongings by her crew to my apartment in Dieppe. Those arrangements required Jennifer and her team, by now working remotely because of the lock-down in France, to get in touch with their crew in Paris, as well as with the building's management and with city officials here in Dieppe. Jennifer kept in communication with me all along the way, all the while working to keep additional expenses to a minimum.
The final step of the move required an outside lift since the elevator to the 5th floor (6th floor in the USA) was too small. The crew arrived at the expected time, providing me advanced notice as I had requested, with all required notifications and paperwork. The move-in went very quickly. Every member of the 4-person crew was most professional, quite good-natured, pleasant to work with and very tolerant of my attempts to communicate in French. They unpacked boxes as requested, re-assembled my dining room table, sofa and other furniture, and went to great lengths to make sure that everything arrived in good condition and that I was satisfied As the lift and truck drove away and I looked at the boxes that remained to be unpacked, I could only be extremely grateful for all the arrangements Jennifer, who checked in again during and after the move, had made and for the incredible team of wonderful people involved in making my move to France as smooth as it could have been and at very reasonable cost- despite all the difficulties along the way! read more