Please forgive me if this is a daft question but I've been searching the web (and this site) but haven't managed to find a definitive answer.

In a few months I'm going to be taking a bit of a European road trip. England to the very south of France (Perpignan) and then a week in Provence.

I then have to drop a friend off at Geneva airport, and then drive to Stuttgart to visit some friends. From there, I drive home to England.

I plan to buy quite a bit of French wine in Provence to bring home to the UK. I'm guessing on somewhere around the 70 bottles mark (my annual supply, all for personal consumption). None of the wine will be consumed in Switzerland (or Germany for that matter) and I only plan to be in Switzerland for around 6 hours (or however long it will take to drive from Geneva Airport to the border crossing in Schaffhausen).

I've done this drive several times before but never with such a load of wine on board. There will just be me in the car once I've dropped my friend off at Geneva airport.

I guess taking 70-odd bottles of wine into Switzerland will be problematic? Or would I be OK as I am not a Swiss citizen (I've a UK passport).

Any helpful hints would be *much* appreciated.
Thanks

Hi JohnT,

Welcolme to the forum. Personally I would avoid Switzerland, ie park the car at a French hotel near Geneva and get a transit bus to the airport and then drive around Switzerland. If you want to enter switzerland this link may help http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...x.html?lang=en
telandy

Thanks for the link- very helpful (it must be the only part of zollinfo I'd not read!)

Basically it seems that I'd have to declare the wine at entrance to Switzerland (Bardonnex) and pay the deposit. And then claim it back when I exit at Schaffhausen a few hours later.

I don't really need to enter Switzerland to drop my friend off at the airport - I could easily do this via the French sector. It is simply that the quickest route from Geneva to Stuttgart is through Switzerland- taking a detour via Besancon / Freiburg is a real pain in the backside.

If anyone has any experience of transit receipts I'd be grateful for any tips.

Cheers

You will also need an Autobahn Vignette at CHF40.-...

Correct me if I am wrong, but not all the airlines have check-in desks in the French sector. Also, certain airlines (I think AirFrance is one example??) only use this check in desk for flights for French destinations, treating this as a domestic airport. Some airlines (Easyjet for example) don't even have a check-in desk in the French sector meaning you'll have to cross into Switzerland to check-in.

It is wise to check whether your friend's flight is with an airline with a check-in desk on the French side. Getting to it not hard. Just drive around Geneva if you are coming from the south and head towards Ferney-Voltaire. Then head towards Geneva from there and there is a slip road to your right just before the border crossing.

As suggested, one of the bus services on the French side of the border may work for you!

We have friends who do it regularly when they travel from Italy to Belgium.

They pay the tax when they cross the border into Switzerland from Italy and claim it back when they leave Switzerland at one of the crossings near Basel. it's apparently really really easy to do.