France

Any person, French resident or not, entering or leaving France carrying EUR 10,000 or more (inclusive, or the equivalent in foreign currency) in cash or bearer instruments must declare it to customs: banknotes and coins; bearer or endorsable negotiable instruments (bearer cheques, traveller's cheques, money orders, non-domiciled bills of exchange and letters of credit, anonymous cashier's certificates, bearer securities and capitalization bonds); gold — coins, and unminted metal such as ingots, nuggets or other native gold agglomerates containing at least 99.5% gold. Prepaid cards are covered only for intra-EU flows. Both flows are declared: to or from a non-EU country (Regulation (EU) 2018/1672) and to or from an EU member state (article L152-1 of the Code monétaire et financier); transports to or from Monaco are included, while interbank and dematerialized transfers are outside the scheme. If you carry for a third party, the declaration must additionally identify the owner of the funds. Non-declaration, false declaration or non-presentation of the money: fine of up to 50% of the sum concerned and temporary retention of the cash; no declaration may be deposited a posteriori as regularization.

Arriving in metropolitan France with goods bought (or received as gifts) in a country or territory that counts as non-EU for these franchises: a third country; a collectivité d'Outre-Mer or New Caledonia (outside the EU customs territory); or a fiscally third territory such as the DOM (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, Réunion, Mayotte), Saint-Martin, the Channel Islands or the Canary Islands. Within the value franchise nothing is declared and nothing is due: EUR 430 by plane or boat, EUR 300 by car, train or any other mode, EUR 150 for travellers under 15 whatever the mode. Arriving from a DOM, the Channel Islands or the Canary Islands, customs duties are not due but VAT applies above the same value thresholds; Andorra has its own franchise regime. Any object whose value exceeds the franchise must be declared, with VAT and customs duties levied on the whole purchase price. Quantitative franchises on non-EU arrivals (metropolitan France only): tobacco 200 cigarettes (1 carton), 100 cigarillos, 50 cigars or 250 g smoking tobacco, pro-rata assortment within the category, travellers under 17 excluded, not applicable to Andorra tobacco; alcohol 4 L still wine plus 16 L beer plus 1 L over 22% or 2 L at or under 22% (proportionate assortment), travellers under 17 excluded; medicines to the traveller's needs and fuel (normal tank plus a reserve can of up to 10 L) are separately franchised; quantities are per person, not per vehicle. Frontier workers, cross-border workers and international transport staff have reduced franchises (value EUR 75, EUR 40 for under-15s; 40 cigarettes). Returning from an EU member state: no fixed value or quantity caps on this page — products for the traveller's own use bear no French excise, assessed per passenger aged over 18 (décret n° 2024-276).