We are traveling from the U.S. to Paris and then to Italy and I am trying to figure out what you are allowed to take into France or from France to Italy.
I guess I am asking if anyone has carried fruits etc from the U.S. past French customs? Thanks.

No potatos, vine leaves, soil, no milk.
All other fruits must have a declaration of plant healt with them. Don't ask where to get that??? LOL. Without they're illegal to import or bring to another EU country. Fruits of EU origin may be imported or exported to another EU country for your own consumption up to 10 kilos.

As long as you're not caught, you can do and try anything, right?

Why ever would you bring fruit from the US to europe? They don;t have any sort of shortage or anything.

I carry fruit when I travel so I need to know whether to pitch or keep. I also might carry a box of blueberries that are available at our local blueberry farm. These blueberries are only available July to early August and I will miss the season unless I take some along with me. These blueberries are incredibly sweet and tasty, way better than the store bought ones and they help satisfy my yearly requirement of antioxidants.
So logos999, if I take a box along, I suppose it would be a problem?

I suggest that you stay home with your fruit if it means that much to you.

France is over run with fruit at this time of the year. In fact, it has fresh fruit from all over the world throughout the year.

It's forbidden to import. It's only a "problem" if they catch you, but you should be aware that it's illegal and you may be fined. There are no more than random checks.

OR you go the official way and get that declaration. Wonder how much that costs? . $100 or more?
Please post, would be very interesting!

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/

I certainly don't want to carry any fruit if it is considered illegal to bring into the country. Thanks, logos999.
Spaarne, the whole point of asking a question on this forum is to determine whether one can do what one wants to do. If I had wanted to sit and home and eat fruit, I would have done just that. Don't need YOU to tell me that. And since this is my first trip to Paris or Europe for that matter, I have no way of knowing that "France is over run with fruit".

Where do you get the sweet blueberries from? The ones in the supermarkets are usually tart.

BTW the fruit in France is fabulous - much better than anything I've had at home. Go to the street markets and don't miss the melons.

The ones at Leduc farms in Michigan are fresh, big and sweet. Thanks, Adrienne. I will most certainly be buying a lot of fruit. Are there any street markets in the Marais?

<u>Do not</u> carry fruit to Europe. Besides all the other issues . . . what if your bag is delayed??? You'll have ruined fruit -- AND possibly ruined clothing.

Janisj, I would have carried them in a box as hand baggage.

Here is a link for Leduc Farms:

http://www.leducblueberries.com/

If you take a box (and IF it is allowed through customs) -- that is your carryon and you can't take a REAL carry on. Silly idea IMO - but it is your trip.

The French will not give a second glance to fruit. And there is no border control between France and Italy.

Logos, yet again, is simply wrong. To simplify EU rules:

1. There are usually no restrictions on what may be imported across EU boundaries. There's no customs control between France and Italy, so you may take anything you like between the two
2. Individuals may not, in general, import meat and dairy products into the EU from outside Europe.
3. <b> Individuals may import into the EU up to a total 2 kg of almost any non-European fruit and vegetables without any health certificate </b>. The main exception is potatoes

The USDA site that's being quoted is a foreign government agency set up to subsidise American agribusiness and help it sell industrial quantities of food. If it claims any authority on the rules Europeasn governments establish for tourist imports, it's talking through its arse.

For real information in English on this, http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/foo...les-090501.htm.

Individual countries occasionally add emergency rules if crop or animal diseases break out. But it's rare

Incidentally, no EU country wastes its taxpayers' money on pointless, job-creating, armies of bureaucrats and dogs pestering arriving passengers. Assuming you've only got 2 kg of permitted fruit and veg, simply take your baggage and walk, unmolested, through the green channel

Gee flanneur, check your facts, it's not like they're unavailable. 10 kilos of fruit across EU borders is o.k for private citizens.
Please don't listen to the evidentally wrong info from flanneur. Don't know where he's got that from, but it's incorrect. No idea why he posts it. Maybe he's referring only to the UK.

I'm not being dragged into an argument with this incoherent buffoon.

I've quoted the rules and referred the poster to an official site.

If the idiot can show a scrap of real evidence for the assertion that private individuals need a health certificate for importing small quantities of fruit, then follow his advice. But as long as he merely rants, draw your own conclusions.

The Marais has one of the best street markets in Paris, The Richard Lenoir market on Thus and Sundays

flanneur and rants ROTFL!

logos why don't you buy your blueberries, take them on the plane and enjoy them on the trip. As others have said the fruit in France is lovely. Try the raspberries, they are delicious.