You should at least start the process by end of June, maybe earlier as there could be delays due to summer holidays. The whole process generally only takes 2 or 3 weeks if you do exactly (and quickly) whats asked. You dan use your CdS or driving licence for id, or if you’re that concerned get your Maire to authenticate a copy. Old passport is sent LRAR and they will DHL your new one back. They’re also pretty good at letting you know how each stage of the process is progressing, but you probably wont be able to (easily) travel outside the schengen area without a passport.
You can request an emergency travel document, that can be collected from the nearest consulate, and it’s usually available within 2 days.
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Not everybody in France accepts those for ID. My driving licence was refused at a hospital in Perigueux. They did treat and trust me to come straight back with the passport though when I told them it was in the car a km away. Pretty sure a CdS has been refused at some point too, but can’t remember where.
Allways send everything by International LRAR from France to outside Europe. You won’t get a signed receipt back from the recipient but at least you have proof its gone and can track it. Passports were taking about ten days from online to receiving signed at the front door via DHL.
The whole process was a success. It took just over two weeks to receive a new passport.
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Could I ask when you sent it off please?
I’m in the process of renewing my UK passport and have been impressed so far. La Poste and Royal Mail got it to Hemel Hempstead in three days and then I expected to hear nothing from the Passport Office for a while, as their website says demand is high. But I had a text two days later, at just before 8pm UK time, to say they’ve received the old passport.
So far, I’m impressed.
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Sorry, I should have updated this.
I sent off my old passport on Monday 30th June, having filled in the online form over the weekend. My new one arrived with DHL on 17th July. At this time of year I expected it to take a lot longer.
Thank you Passport Office.
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It’s a stressful procedure for us overseas applicants, but the UK Passport Office seems consistently mega-efficient.
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Yes I have mine to do later this year, December, luckily a friend and his wife did theirs in a suitable part of their house so I’ll ask if they will do mine too. How the time has gone, 10 years ago as I was frequently crossing borders I wanted no wait and had been told it could take weeks or months, so we went to Peterborough and exchanged it over the counter then.
Fran had to be in the country but not in the office in person so I left her with the caravan at a transport cafe on the A1 while I went into the town.
The only stressful part of the process is your old passport disappearing into the Realm of Mystery (formerly known as Royal Main) where La Poste is no longer updated after “Shipment has reached destination country” and you hearing nothing until the Passport Office sends you the “We’ve received your old passport” message at which point things really happen rather quickly.
Sending the old passport back to the U.K. via DHL or similar express courier will be my way of alleviating this delay in 8 years time when mine needs renewal again.
I was able to track my old passport on Royal Mail, either they or La Poste must have given me a tracking number.
On 12th August I applied to renew my passport (name change), sent off the relevant documents which passed seamlessly through LaPoste and then Royal Mail, who reported them as delivered on the 16th. This morning (26th) I received an email from the passport office telling me that they had received my documents.
I wonder what happened to them during the 10 day interval 
They were sitting in a pile waiting for someone to scan them, I imagine. They could be short-staffed because of the holiday season. I’m sure I read somewhere, maybe their online tracker, that there can be a delay between your documents being delivered and them acknowledging receipt.
You’re quite right about there being a delay - what the website said was that you can’t track it immediately because linking the documents to the website was a manual process. I suppose I’d assumed that, in that case, the email would be manual as well but I obviously got that wrong! 10 days seems a bit much though?
Royal Mail happened.
It definitely didn’t! Royal Mail reported it as delivered and I tracked it to the door. Had to happen within the Passport office I think…
Mine fell into The Realm Of Untraceability between it landing in the U.K. and the Passport Office receiving it.
I had some things do that too, but it now looks like they’ve fixed the link between LaPoste and Royal Mail, thank goodness! Both systems reported the UK activity which certainly didn’t happen when I last did anything like this.
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Additional question for anyone with experience of this…
I applied for a replacement passport because I was returning to my maiden name. I included all the documents they told me they’d need. I have just had an email from them saying I have not provided evidence of use of my maiden name post-divorce. Given that Carte de Sejour and driving licence were in the list of acceptable documents and I sent these, I am more than a bit stymied. They have made no indication as to what is wrong with the documents I sent. I have obviously emailed back to ask about this since what they sent me had no details in it just the usual copy-and-paste “we need more documents” stuff.
Has anyone else had problems returning to the name they were born with?
Not quite, and so far not a problem, but certainly an inconvenience. My first given name is not the one I have used since birth, seriously, my Mum called me David while still in the womb even though she had put another name before it officialy ‘because it flowed better’ 
She never lived it down having been christened Ida herself but always called Betty.
The problems arrive beause at different times officialdom has taken my name from documents and others from my own automatic response. I am surprised though that the French and British tax authorities only know me as David whereas my passport is different.
This might present a minor problem when I ask the Maire to witness my name on the Life form if he reads my passport carefully.