Expat Community > France

cecilemarie
Joined 2014
Posts: 41

Taking pets from the US to France

5 years ago

Our 2 dogs and 2 cats flew on the same Lufthansa flight with us and all went well. The cats were not totally happy and told us and everyone in baggage claim all about it. Lufthansa is the only airline out of Florida that accepted 2 pets per person, hence one of the decisions to fly them instead of Air France into Paris. The kitties with their fur coats and ability to adjust to different temperatures went into the pet holding area below and the 2 dogs were under the seats with us. We had to give our hyper boogie a tablet from the vet to make her comfortable and it worked nicely. Lufthansa has pet carrier requirements which we complied with for both the cats and dogs. The flight was direct non-stop from Tampa to Frankfurt, eliminating issues with any connecting flights. The only unnerving event was that Lufthansa went on strike the very day we flew adding a lot of stress to the trip. So, to back up a bit, we obtained all the requirements for taking a pet to France on the APHIS website: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/pet-travel Since we flew into Germany, not France, we selected the country specific requirements for Germany and the form we downloaded was English/German. All the details can be found on the APHIS site including instructions on how to complete the form in whatever language or country. The USDA woman in Gainesville answered all my questions and gave me great comfort with the process. All four pets were chipped and vaccinated within the correct timeframe and our vet signed the verification at the final visit. We FEDEXED the form to the USDA office in Gainesville (not affected by the shutdown) and they processed and returned the form in time for our flight. This was a somewhat stressful end to end process in that we had no idea what would happen if everything was not in order upon arrival in the EU. Lufthansa made copies when we checked in but that was the end of it. What is hysterically funny is no one at the Frankfurt airport asked to see the paperwork! We rented a van (Sixt is a great rental agency in the EU!) for 4 large suitcases, 4 carry ons, 4 pets, and 2 humans for the drive from Frankfurt to our destination in Sarlat and dropped it at the Brive airport once we got our new car. On the way we stopped twice staying at pet friendly hotels. Buying and insuring a car in France will have to be another post.
Today we are in our home in France getting used to the house and drastic change in weather. It was stressful for all but now past history. FYI for anyone taking a pet from the US to the EU in the future, the airlines are implementing new rules in February 2019 and many airlines will no longer accept pets at all, not even Emotional Support Animals. Bookings on the QE2 are hard to come by and require serious advance planning and booking. My hope is this will lead to a good viable pet transport airline whose costs are within reason.

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