International courier from Bangalore to France. Free home pickup.
Picked up from your Bengaluru address whenever you are free, packed and declared properly, and flown out of Kempegowda on the DTDC International network rather than trucked to another city first. 5–7 working days door-to-door on express, from ₹1,300 per kilogram before fuel surcharge and GST.
Five steps from your Bengaluru door to a French address.
Collection in Bengaluru.
Free at 5 kg+, any hour of the day or night. Aerospace and IT teams around Vimanapura, Old Airport Road, Whitefield and Electronic City work on European clocks as it is, so an evening or pre-dawn collection is routine for us rather than a favour. Packing material and the airway bill come with the rider.
Build the declaration.
A printed invoice listing each item in plain words with quantity, value and HS code where the goods are commercial. A French business consignee gives you a SIRET number; a private one gives a numéro fiscal or a full name and mobile. Brand names never go on the invoice unless the goods genuinely are that brand.
BLR gateway.
Handed into the DTDC International facility and lifted from Kempegowda, which runs its own international departures. Origins without a customs-capable airport have to move the parcel overland to Mumbai or Delhi and lose the better part of a day doing it. That saving lands at the beginning of the journey, not the end.
Douanes at the border.
Paris-CDG most often, Lyon, Marseille or Toulouse depending on how the shipment routes. France is where the parcel crosses into the European customs union, and that one clearance is good for the whole bloc. Douanes moves quickly on clear paperwork and slowly on anything that looks like it might be branded.
Doorstep delivery.
Chronopost or Colissimo for the last mile. French residential addresses are layered — bâtiment, escalier, étage, appartement — and most apartment blocks have a street-door digicode. Every element of that belongs on the address line. POD comes to you on WhatsApp the day of delivery.
Starting rates. The final figure is a weight calculation.
Whichever is greater — the weight on the scale or the volumetric figure — is what the per-kilogram rate is applied to, with the day's international fuel surcharge added and GST after that. French TVA and any duty are assessed on arrival and settled by the person receiving the parcel.
Starting per-kg rates
- Express (5–7 days, door)from ₹1,300 / kg
- Economy (8–12 days, door)from ₹950 / kg
- Min billable weight0.5 kg
- Pickup from BengaluruFree at 5 kg+
Volumetric formula: (L × W × H cm) ÷ 5000.
Worked example
A 2 kg parcel — say two prototype housings and a set of drawings going from an Electronic City hardware team to a buyer in Toulouse, about 30 × 25 × 15 cm:
- Express, 2 kg × ₹1,300≈ ₹2,600
- + fuel surcharge (~25%)≈ ₹650
- + GST 18%≈ ₹585
- Approx total, express≈ ₹3,835
An estimate rather than a quote — surcharges move week to week. French TVA and duty, where they apply, are billed to the recipient.
What we collect before the box is taped.
One customs union, one border, one clearance — a parcel that enters at Roissy is inside the whole EU. What varies country to country is what customs looks hardest at, and in France that is unmistakably branded and brandable goods.
KYC of the sender
A single government photo ID belonging to whoever is named as sender on the airway bill — Aadhaar, passport or licence. The rider captures it at your address and it lives only in DTDC's booking file.
Invoice, with plain descriptions
Item, quantity, unit value, HS code for commercial goods. SIRET for a French business consignee, numéro fiscal for a private one. Keep every description generic and factual — "silk saree, 5.5 m", "brass-plated earrings" — because a brand reference on a France-bound invoice invites the one inspection you do not want. A genuine present between private individuals is declared as a gift with a real value, not a token one.
Prescription, for medicines
Original sealed strips, a copy of the prescription showing the doctor's registration number, and a line explaining the condition. ANSM does not permit controlled substances by post, and liquids and injectables do not fly on any lane we run.
What France doesn’t let in.
Some of this is the common EU rulebook and some is particular to France. All of it is enforced by Douanes, and a parcel that breaches it is seized or destroyed with the cost landing on your recipient. Listed in the order Bengaluru senders tend to trip over them.
Don’t even try
- Counterfeit or brand-suggestive goods — France is the headquarters of the global luxury industry and Douanes screens harder for this than any other member state. Lookalike logos, "inspired-by" designs and unbranded goods in branded-style boxes are all seized.
- Milk and meat products of any kind — the EU refuses personal consignments of both from outside the bloc. Ghee, milk sweets, khoa, dried meat and vacuum-packed pickles containing either are all on this side of the line, sealed or not.
- Seeds, plants and fresh produce — EU plant-health law wants a phytosanitary certificate no courier parcel can carry. Fresh curry leaves and coconut are the two that Bengaluru senders keep trying.
- Nazi and hate-speech material — the Loi Gayssot mirrors the German position, and it applies to foreign-published books and memorabilia.
- Bladed and replica weapons — the banned-weapon schedule covers ornamental swords, kirpans, decorative daggers and airsoft.
- Cannabinoid products, including CBD — French law on cannabinoids is restrictive and parcel-level policy is stricter still. Treat it as blocked.
- Ivory, coral, shell and CITES-listed material — France layers its own protections over the CITES baseline.
- Aerosols, perfumes and loose lithium cells above 100 Wh — an aviation rule, not a French one, and the reason spare power banks never travel.
Allowed with care
- Filter coffee powder and dry masalas — sealed, commercially packed, ingredients printed. The powder ships; the brewed decoction is a liquid and does not.
- Silk and cotton textiles — Kanjeevaram, Mysore silk, handloom cotton, stitched garments. Describe the fibre and give a fair value; France's textile trade is well used to Indian cloth and clean declarations pass easily.
- Sealed dry snacks — chakli, mixture, banana chips, factory-packed with a printed ingredient list including allergens.
- Sandalwood soap and powder — manufactured goods, so they move. The oil is a liquid and does not.
- Engineering samples and prototypes — declare material, function and value honestly, and flag anything with an aerospace or defence application before we pack it.
- Books, certificates and printed documents — declare the title and a value; nothing else needed.
Aerospace samples, Paris families, and a lot of paperwork.
The Indian community in France is smaller than in Germany or Britain and skews heavily professional — engineers, researchers, business-school students. The lane reflects that: fewer bulk family parcels, more documents, prototypes and precisely timed shipments.
The Bengaluru–Toulouse aerospace link
Bengaluru is India's aerospace capital — HAL, ISRO, the Aerospace Park at Devanahalli, and the engineering centres in and around Vimanapura and Whitefield — and Toulouse is Europe's. Design documentation, tooling samples, test coupons and small non-flight components move between them constantly. Anything with a genuine aerospace application needs telling us in advance; some of it cannot travel on a courier network at all.
Professional families in Île-de-France
Indian engineers and consultants across Paris, La Défense, Boulogne and Issy, plus a research community around Grenoble and Sophia Antipolis. Coffee powder, podis, festival clothing, children's books in Kannada and Hindi, and the occasional replacement for something that broke and cannot be bought locally.
Students at the grandes écoles
Sciences Po, INSEAD at Fontainebleau, École Polytechnique, ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, HEC. Term-start cartons in late August and September — bedding, a pressure cooker, sealed dry provisions, formal clothing for the recruitment season. Campus residences want the room number and the student's French mobile on the label.
Startup samples for European buyers
Product samples, packaging mockups and demo hardware from Koramangala, HSR Layout and Indiranagar to French distributors, accelerators and trade shows. If there is a fixed date — a fair, a pitch, a pilot install — tell us and we book express against it.
Wedding and celebration clothing
Silk sarees, lehengas and sherwanis for weddings in the French-Indian community, including the long-established Tamil families around La Chapelle in Paris. Always express and always early; the outfit and the date are not negotiable in the way a delivery estimate is.
Documents, dossiers and legal papers
Degree certificates, transcripts, apostilled papers, notarised translations, signed contracts, and the thick supporting dossiers French administrative processes ask for. Tracked express with a stated deadline, and worth telling us if it is going to a préfecture or a consulate appointment.
AWB the moment it’s booked. Then tracking, then the POD.
As soon as the shipment is booked into DTDC International the AWB reaches you on WhatsApp, whatever the hour — the Bengaluru desk is staffed through the night. Follow it at dtdc.in. Two stretches show no movement and both are normal: the flight itself, and the Douanes clearance window. If a status reads held or information required, forward us the AWB and we chase it from this end rather than leaving you on an overseas helpline. The POD reaches you within an hour of Chronopost or Colissimo completing delivery.
The three that come up every week.
The French address has a bâtiment, an escalier and a digicode. Does all of that go on the label?
Yes, all of it, and this is the single most common cause of a failed delivery on the France lane. A French residential address is not one line — it is building, staircase, floor, apartment number, then street, then postcode and commune, and most apartment blocks have a keypad code on the street door. Chronopost and Colissimo will attempt delivery, find no way in and no name they recognise on the interphone, and leave a card for collection at a relay point. Send us the full address exactly as your recipient writes it, including the digicode and the name shown on the interphone if it differs from theirs, plus a working French mobile number. Written properly the parcel reaches the door; written as a single line with a street and a postcode it very often does not.
Can I send an aerospace component from Bengaluru to a French buyer?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on what the part is. Ordinary engineering samples — test coupons, machined blanks, tooling fixtures, non-flight prototypes — move on this lane routinely with a commercial invoice, correct HS code, material description and the buyer's SIRET. What needs a conversation before pickup is anything with a certified aviation application or a dual-use character, because a part intended for installation on an aircraft usually needs traceability and airworthiness documentation from your side, and some categories are export-controlled and simply do not travel on a courier network. Tell us what it is and who it is going to, and we will tell you honestly whether we can carry it. Do not disguise it as a general machine part; a component described vaguely and inspected at Roissy costs more time than the phone call would have.
How much will my cousin in Paris have to pay to receive the parcel?
Something, unless the parcel is a genuine low-value gift, and the amount depends on the value you declare rather than on what you paid us. TVA is charged on commercial goods coming into France regardless of value, and customs duty is added above a €150 goods value. Chronopost or Colissimo collects it from the recipient, usually with a handling charge on top, before releasing the parcel. Presents sent between private individuals get a relief below €45 and should be declared as a gift, honestly and with the real value written down — a saree marked at €10 does not read as credible to Douanes and a challenged declaration costs your cousin days as well as money. The practical advice is to declare accurately, send in one consignment rather than several small ones, and warn your cousin that a payment link will arrive before the parcel does.
Tell us the rough weight and the destination code postal.
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Someone at your Bengaluru door, whenever it suits you.
Message the pickup address on WhatsApp or ring the desk. HSR Layout answers 24×7, and we will check the French address and the declaration with you before anything is taped shut.