How to address a letter or parcel to France

Need to write a French postal addresses? Here's a quick guide.

Postal addresses in France have quite a particular format, with a number of rules for etiquette. They must not exceed six lines, with an additional seventh for international mail.

Residential addresses

1. Put the name of the addressee at the top, with any titles such as madame, mademoiselle or monsieur. The convention in France is to write the surname in capitals, for the sake of clarity.

2. Next, you can optionally put any additional information where a house number and street name do not suffice. On one line, put any specifics for locating the address inside a building – for example, a floor or apartment number (as in the example above). If someone else’s name is on the doorbell, you can put ‘chez [that person’s name]’ on this line. Put any external access information, for example a building name or specific entrance, on a separate line after that.

3. On the next line, put the building number and street name. This is essential information so put it in all caps.

4. Then you can add another optional line for any additional information that might be needed for the location of the address, that’s not already covered by the above – for example, boîte postal (PO Box), poste restant (used by travellers with no permanent address), or lieu-dit (see below).

5. Next, put the postcode and locality on one line, again in all caps.

6. And finally, put the country.

Rural addresses

Rural hamlet addresses have traditionally worked differently from those in towns and cities. Rural residents have often used lieux-dits, which are traditional names for small areas that may refer to characteristic features, historical events, or previous occupants associated with the locale.

Until recently, this meant that rural addresses might only contain the name of the addressee, the lieu-dit, and then the postcode and locality.

However, as of 2024, this is being phased out in favour of standardisation, and house numbers and street names are now required even for rural addresses. This is to ensure that exact addresses can be located via GPS and recorded in computer databases. Lieux-dits may still be used, but mail that has an address without a number and street name may no longer be delivered.

Business addresses

For business addresses, most of the above still applies, but there are a few small differences.

1. The company name should go at the top, in all caps.

2. The individual addressee replaces the additional information on the second line. You can also put a department name here. Extra location information such as a building name, unit number or entrance would then go on a separate line below.

3. Businesses may have a CEDEX postal code, which is basically a dedicated postal code for recipients of large amounts of mail. Specify the delivery office on the postcode line (postcode + locality + ‘CEDEX’). If there’s more than one office in the locality, you may have to add a specific number; e.g. ‘CEDEX 1’. If you are sending to a PO Box and it’s not in the same locality as the delivery office, add this locality to the line with the PO Box number (e.g. BP 10111 PARIS).

Sending a parcel to France?

The good news is that when you book a parcel delivery online, you will usually be able to use an address look-up tool that will populate most of this information for you.

However, please note that most parcel couriers are unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

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