Addresses in France - rules for parcel shipping, „how to“ and fun facts

The fabulous world of French addresses - or why letter carriers in France are also philosophers.

France - the country where ZAZ with „Je veux“ makes the cafés resound, Kylian Mbappé shakes the stadiums with his goals and Bordeaux, Camembert, baguette & co. our palate.
But even apart from music, soccer and culinary delights, France is full of little wonders - for example in its unique addresses. Anyone who has ever sent a parcel or letter to France or got lost in Paris knows that addresses in France follow their own rules - and are full of surprises.

From red and black house numbers to mysterious „bis“ addresses and streets named after revolutionaries, poets or local heroes: every address tells a little story.
In this article, we delve into the “fabulous world of Amelie” - oops, the fabulous world of French addresses, of course - with examples, fun facts and cultural backgrounds. We have compiled the most important facts for you so that your mail arrives safely, there are no returns and you can validate the addresses without any problems.

Ready for a little trip through the magical addresses of France? :-)

Voilà - the structure of a typical address in France

A French address follows a clear pattern that differs from German addresses.

Address structure with example

Line 1	Madame Sophie Martin	Salutation, first/last name „Madame“ or „Monsieur“ or academic title
Line 2	12 Rue de la République	House number and street name Attention: in France the house number is before the street name!
Line 3	75011 PARIS	Zip code and city/town The zip code has five digits and begins with the number of the department e.g. 75 for Paris
Line 4	FRANCE	Country

Signs, lines and the „golden rules“ of La Poste - you should observe these in your online store to avoid returns!

Each address line can be maximum 38 characters including spaces, with a total of Maximum six lines are possible. The two additional lines are used, for example, for Business addresses and for the Address additions such as apartment, floor, backyard, building, space, etc.
Capitalizing the surname, city and country is recommended by „La Poste“ as it makes delivery easier - it is not necessary.

You can read the six golden rules of „La Poste“ here: Bien rédiger l'adresse d'une lettre ou d'un colis - La Poste

Abbreviations for the form of address are common - Mme for Madame and M for Monsieur. It is advisable to use a form of address - because the cultural sensitivity of the Grande Nation needs to be taken into account. An academic title, e.g. Docteur (Dr.), Professeur (Prof.) or Maître (Me), precedes the first name and replaces the form of address.

„bis“, „ter“ and „quater“ - the mysterious additions to an address in France, colors and more

Why are there addresses in France like “12 bis” or „33 ter“ that sound like someone forgot to finish the sentence?
French addresses know these suffixes because houses were built afterwards. „bis“ comes from Latin and stands for „twice“ - „ter“ stands for „three times“ - „quater“ for „four times“. This rarely happens, because at some point there is no more room for new houses.

12 Rue de Rivoli	the first house
12 to = built between no. 12 and the following house	the second House - built later
12 ter = another house after „12 bis“	the third Subsequent house
12 quater = one more house after „12 bis“	the fourth Subsequent house

In Paris and some other cities, house numbers are color-coded. Red numbers for one side of the street, usually the side on which the sun rises, black or blue numbers for the opposite side. This system dates back to the 19th century, long before Google Maps, and was intended to make it easier for letter carriers and firefighters to find their way around.

Street names in the countryside

In rural regions there are often no official Street names and house numbers. Instead, houses are simply addressed with the name of the hamlet or village, leading to such romantic names as „La Maison après le Chêne, avant le Ruisseau“, which translates as „The house after the oak, before the stream“. Pure romance, but what if the oak is no longer standing or the stream has dried up?
„If a house has no address, where is it?“ - Descartes would despair, the French postal service remains cool :-)

Here are two less romantic, but still special examples. “Le Bourg” refers to the core of a community and means something like “near the town hall, church, etc.”.
“Le Village” on the other hand, refers to a village or a smaller district within a municipality. Both are official parts of a postal address and help the postal service to identify the exact location in rural areas.

The cultural significance of French street names and squares is omnipresent - they are peppered with history, politics, local pride, humor and emotion.
Very typical names are, for example, Rue de la République, which can be found in almost every city and is reminiscent of the revolution. Artists, writers and traditions are of course also represented - Rue Victor Hugo, Place Pablo Picasso or Rue des Vignerons, the „winegrowers“ street" in many wine-growing regions such as Bordeaux.
Emotional and funny street names like

• Impasse des Amoureux, the „dead end of lovers“
• Rue du Baiser, the „street of kissing“ or the
• Street of the Fishing Cat, „Rue du Chat Qui Pêche“
  

speak for the ingenuity of the French.

From country to city - many important address additions: Étage, Bâtiment, Arrière-cour and more

Especially in large cities such as Lyon, Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux or Nice, all additional information is very important. Details of the Building (Bâtiment), to the Residential complex (Résidence) or Floor details (Étage) and Apartment numbers (apartment or appt.) should be taken into account so that the post office is not faced with unsolvable puzzles and delivery is made more difficult.
These additions should be placed in the line after the name and before the street.

With the numerous address suffixes that exist in France, it is important to logical sequence to note.
Always from large to smallBuilding → Floor → Apartment. The spelling is often variable, e.g.

The risk of abbreviations for addresses in France

Abbreviations can only be used if the available characters are not sufficient. In general, it is customary to write out all details. If you use these abbreviations in an official document, a French official will give you a death stare - a risk you'd better not take without necessity!

Avenue (Av.) - wide avenue e.g. Avenue des Champs-Élysées ^{_{→ where you can afford a coffee for 10 euros}}
Rue (R.) - Street, e.g. Rue de Fleurs
Boulevard (vol.) - Large street with trees e.g. Boulevard Saint-Germain
Place (pl.) - Square, e.g. Place de la Concorde
Impasse (Imp.) - Dead end, e.g. Impasse des Amoureux
Quay (Q.) - Quai de Seine
^{_{→ the perfect place in Paris for a stroll to think about life, love or your empty wallet :-)}}

CEDEX - the VIP area of “La Poste”, post boxes and packing stations

For the purpose of faster mail delivery, There are for companies, universities, ministries, major customers and people who are too cool for “normal street information”, CEDEX addresses - Courrier d'Entreprise à Distribution Exceptionnelle.

Fun fact → the official French address of Santa Claus - of course with CEDEX express delivery can be found at the end of the article.
The French postal service does indeed answer letters to Santa Claus, but you should enclose a stamped envelope and write before December 10 so that the reply doesn't arrive at Easter.

In addition to CEDEX addresses, there are of course also PO Box addresses (Boîte Postale, BP) - You often find both in combination if the recipient is a major customer, for example. The street and house number are not required.

Packing stations (Point de Retrait/Relais Colis) - e.g. from Mondial Relay, Relais Colis, Amazon Locker

Between naps, strikes or spontaneous wine tastings, the French are quick to miss the parcel carrier. That's why they love Packstations - there are over 30,000 of them - that's more than there are bakeries in France - and that's saying something. They also like to combine things - getting a baguette and a parcel in one go is “normal”, so to speak. Packing stations are a lifesaver for letter carriers - imagine having to walk up five flights of stairs several times a day without an elevator because someone has ordered 24 bottles of Bordeaux.

Important!
Without the Packstation number, your parcel will end up in nirvana, which is darker than some wine cellars in Bordeaux.
If you mix CEDEX, BP and Packstation in one address, the French postal system will explode and your parcel won't even end up at “Aunt Ginette's”.
You can of course do that - there are people who have tried it - the package was never found again.

Du want to know, how we make online shipping easier for you so that your parcels arrive fabulously well!

All the special features and facts that we have explained to you in this blog post are included in our address management services. Use our address validation and save yourself annoying and expensive returns.
Our address service makes shipping to France child's play:
Correct mistakes - from accents (é, è, ç - we love them!) to transposed house numbers.
Format addresses perfectly - so that the post office does not capitulate to „3ème porte à gauche“ (third door on the left).
„Deciphering “bis„, “ter„ & Co. - we know where “12 bis" really belongs.
Remove spaces - e.g. from „house number 12 A“ → „12A“.

-> And the best part, you can Test free of charge - before your package ends up in the wrong mailbox like in Amélie's movie! Simply apply for an API key.

“MERCI” to the French post office - because as a letter carrier you certainly need a compass for the “absurdity of address life” as well as a city map.
Houses without doorbell signs, but with cryptic notices like „Chez Marcel, 3ème porte à gauche“ - which means something like „At Marcel's, third door on the left“ ... uff, it's quite a feat to cope with that - you could also say that mail delivery is less a logistics job than a daily philosophical Zen exercise :-)

So much for today - time for a café au lait :-)
À bientôt and bon courage with your French addresses!

Want more info?

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or read our blog post on addressing and address validation in Great Britain.

PS
Small but mighty! The charming Post office in the Eiffel Tower - Bureau de Poste de la Tour Eiffel - can be found on the 1st floor (1er étage) - it is only about 10 m2 in size, is about 100 m high and is one of the most beautiful in the world. Your mail will receive what is probably the most famous postmark in the world - with collector's value!
As long as you address your mail to France correctly, it will even reach the 300-meter-high Eiffel Tower.

And here is the address for your mail to the French Santa Claus :-)
Père Noël
Pôle Nord
99999 NOËL CEDEX
FRANCE

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^{Sources
Pictures: Paris with Eiffel Tower File:Eiffel Tower from arc de triomphe.jpg - Wikimedia Commons, La Poste logo La Poste (France) logo - La Poste (France) - Wikipedia
Bien rédiger l'adresse d'une lettre ou d'un colis - La Post
https://www.deutschepost.de/de/b/briefe-ins-ausland/brief-beschriften.html}