Moving to France, Dwayne wants a certificate saying that any imported items are not destined for resale.
This rather scuppers our plan of getting a regular stall at a vide grenier and selling English books, CDs, DVDs and jigsaws (all of which we already own).
Am I misunderstanding something, or can we never sell anything we import (which would include, for example, the car)?
According to Service-public.fr:
To benefit from the exemption of customs duties for goods entering France, you must complete the following conditions :
- You reside in a non-EU country since 1 year minimum
- You transfer your principal residence (called “normal” by customs) in France. Your property must not enter France to furnish a second home.
- You’ve owned these assets since 6 months minimum
- You import your goods into 12 months that follow your installation in France
- You commit to do not sell or rent your property for 1 year after entering France
So you will have to hang on to your valuable first editions of Chaucer and Shakespeare for at least a year before you can flog them to an unsuspecting French public. 
The other wrinkle is that you can only do two a year. You could of course register as an AE to do more but not if you are on a visitor visa, and of course would then pay tax and social charges which could endanger your S1 if you have one.
https://www.economie.gouv.fr/particuliers/brocante-vide-grenier-braderie-regle-impot
I would also have a think about whether this is worthwhile as France is awash with people trying to give away english books for free. The cost of transporting them may not be recouped.
Jigsaws are expensive here so that might have more success.
You’d do better to sell them before you leave the UK. I agree with @JaneJones that getting rid of English books in France is hard - I give mine away to Emmaus and to a local second hand shop.
Also, if you get rid of them in the UK your removals costs will be cheaper. 
Right - thanks for the advice.
Time for a rethink.
I brought dozens of books down here from another dept, they weigh a ton, take up so many boxes and its criminal to just throw them out in my opinion. I asked our village library before moving if they would like some for any english speakers and they said no call for them. I believe the UK has lots of charity shops these days, they might be glad of them if you can’t sell them.
I sometimes hand over a box of English books to a friend when she comes to visit so she can take it back to a charity shop. On the other hand, if you have enough space, you can turn a small room into a library for personal use! I struggle to get rid of books and often reread them. Also, I have started lending some to our French/English conversation group so that French people can practice reading English…
We have - book cases in the lounge, book cases in my study, book cases in his study. We must have over a thousand books. But they just sit there, because there’s always another new book to read. I’m beginning to realise that the ones in my study are just cluttering up the space - I’m never going to read them again, except maybe a handful. But I do find it very difficult to get rid of them. I can’t even get rid of old technical books, like how to build a website, even though they are so out of date!
Me too! I haven’t counted the books but outside the “library” there are bookshelves on the landing, in the bedroom, down stairs in the salon…everywhere!
That’s modest! I’d say we are well over that as have equivalent number in French.
They are also inundated with books. Oxfam has a specialist section and will willing take first editions 
Many towns have these book boxes where you put in books you have read and take out other books to read. The boxes are often sponsored by the Lions or some other organisation and tend to be well used. I have noticed that in areas with a big anglophone population, there are loads of English books in the boxes, I see a lot of Stephen King, Barbara Cartland type books. I imagine anglophones who have access to a book box are not going to pay much for this type of books when they can get them for free. But maybe special interest?
Though as said you cannot use vide greniers as an unofficial money making venture.
Our local town has a sheltered area where unwanted books are left for others to read. We take unwanted books there and the English ones go quickly. Our small Commune does the same.
We have a red UK phone box which is used for this sort of purpose. There aren’t generally many books in English there though and I’m not sire who, apart from a few holiday makers would use them. The French ones get swept upon like a plague of locusts!
I found ours helpful in winter to get the fire going. 
I culled my books when we sold out large bookcases about 6 months before we moved to France. I gave about 250 books to Oxfam all in boxes. The ones to keep were stored in a lockup along with other things we were packing up ahead of the move. Unfortunately, the lockup got flooded and many of my books were ruined including my treasured Kurt Vonnegut collection 
.
Our village has a library in the lavoir with hundreds of books which can be taken away to be read and returned. There’s even some in English, but the usual Barbara Cartland style stuff.
In trying to find a piccy of our lavoir, I found the following, fascinating website
Oh that is so sad. I have an OH who, once he finds an author he likes, often reads every single title. He would be distraught to lose his collections.
When I moved to Turks & Caicos in 2003 I had a big clearout of books (to charity shops, who at the time were glad to take them).
Ditto in T&C when I left to come back to the UK.
However since 2010 if I buy books I do so from the Kindle store, so they take up no physical space and are always available (at least until Amazon goes phut, which is probably unlikely).
Reading a book on an iPad or phone is not as nice as holding a real volume, but it is more practical!
The only physical books I buy (or get given for Xmas) are posh photography books, or perhaps something that’s old and out of print and unavailable via Kindle.
We gave loads away before moving here 9 years ago but still have boxes of them as well as too many on display. As we get older and realise we are never going to even open many of them again we have tried to give them away but now take a box or two back to the UK with us when we drive back and take them to Oxfam books.