redhedgurrl

Hi - We are planning a 3+ month RV trip around Europe this fall/winter. How can we receive mail? The only permanent mailing address we have is a box in the states that a friend has been periodically sending mail to us from while we are living in Paris, but once we leave Paris we no longer have a place to receive mail and will be on the road for an extended time. I know I can have most things taken care of electronically including my friend scanning mail, but what if we need to receive something?
Thanks!
Rena

hetismij

Certainly in the Uk and France things can be ent Poste restante to a particular post office. They will then hold the mail until you come along and pick it up. It may be worth looking into this for other countries you are visiting and then picking a few towns to use. Give your friend the towns and approximately when you will be there.

fnarf999

You can use Poste Restante at the main post office in most large cities. You should go to the P.O. beforehand and set it up. Your correspondent addresses the mail to you at that post office. For Rome, that would be Your Name, Ferme Posta, Palazzo della Poste, Roma ITALY. You will pay some tax.

I decent guide book or some internet searching will reveal the addresses for other cities. Search "poste restante" plus the city name.

KayF

One tip for sending mail Poste Restante - have senders put your last name in capitals and underline. It is not always obvious to someone foreign which is your first and last name.

When you go into the post office and ask if they have mail for you - ask them to check under your last name AND your first name.

Kay

PalenQ

I've camped a lot in Europe and if you know the camp or RV site address the office will hold the mail for you, much like Poste Restante but oh so more convenient because you need not track into the city centre during business hours to fetch it.

Say hold for arrival and a date on it so they don't dispose of it at some time thinking you've left.

ellenem

This used to be a service available to American Express cardholders at their main offices in European cities. Not sure how it works now, but might be wrth checking. (In the movie "Charade," Cary Grant goes downstairs at the American Express office in Paris where one used to pick up mail.)

PalenQ

ever heard of e-mail? Internet cafes all over.

ellenem

I think the OP needs/wants to receive the actual forwarded paper mail. . .

PalenQ

I woldn't forward any important mail - i'd have someone screen it at home. As for letters i think the reason AMEX has reduced their Client's Mail Service is because they have such little call for it.

But yes there must be some paper mail and i was joking a bit.

AMEX may be the safest but is so hard to retrieve - getting to the office during opening hours and then you have to have an AMEX card or cheques i believe.

Just send it to the camp or RV site and forget about AMEX or Poste Restante IMO

nukesafe

This story is not exactly relevant to your question, but a number of years ago, before email, when we were wandering on the waterways of France, and later all over the Med., I used to have business and personal mail forwarded to Poste Restante. It worked well until we got to Lebanon.

We were berthed in the yacht basin at J0unieh, north of Beirut for a few weeks while we hauled the boat and painted the bottom. I would go into town each day, and in my fractured French ask, "Pardon, avez-vous le courrier pour Monsieur Gxxxx""

"Non, Monsieur", he would reply.

This went on for a loooong time. I was grumbling about slow mail service to other skippers at the yacht club, when one of them asked, "Well, how much did you pay him?"

nukesafe

Damn! I hit the wrong button before finishing my story. Sorry about that!

"What do you mean, Pay him? You don't bribe postmen!"

"This is Lebanon, of course you do. Just go to the counter tomorrow and ask him."

I did. I asked if I had mail -- followed by a rather timid, "Combien, Monsieur?"

He told me -- not very much -- I paid him and he handed over a three inch stack of my mail.

I'm sure things are not like that i Europe now, but ------

kerouac

Poste Restante is kept (officially) one month in France, always at the main post office of the city (rue du Louvre, in Paris). In reality, they often keep it much longer because it is taking up less and less space.

PalenQ, you are delightful but you disgust me. Any normal person knows that postal mail is 1000% more wonderful than any e-mail that you could ever send or receive.

PalenQ

meme e-mail with photos and voices of folks back home? Luddite?

PalenQ

Jack - i guess my satire doesn't always come thru - of course i'm partial as well to snail mail.

kerouac

Oh, don't worry, I wasn't offended. I just didn't have anything more to say about the subject.