How to Write an Address in France: Format, Postcodes and Examples

Addresses in France follow their own order and postcode rules. This guide shows how to write one correctly, with real postcode examples and the most common mistakes, whether you are sending mail, building a checkout form or preparing test data.

Address format

House number before the street type and name, then the postcode and town on the next line.

Alice Bernard 26 place des Lilas 33700 Mérignac

France postcode format

Format: 99999

French postcodes have five digits. The first two usually match the département number, so 75 is Paris and 13 is Bouches-du-Rhône.

More examples

Louis Bernard 32 bis allée Gambetta 34500 Béziers
Jules Lefebvre 2 boulevard de la République 35000 Rennes

Sending to France from abroad

Write the address exactly as it is used locally, then add the country name in capital English letters on the last line.

Paul Petit 121 avenue du Moulin 45100 Orléans FRANCE

Tips and common mistakes

  • Write the number first: 12 rue de la Paix.
  • La Poste recommends the last line in capitals: 75002 PARIS.
  • Bis and ter after a number mark added buildings, as in 12 bis.
  • CEDEX codes are for business mail only and should not be used for homes.

Regions of France

France has 13 regions in our data. The region is rarely required in a postal address, but forms and databases often store it separately.

RegionMajor cities and towns
Auvergne-Rhône-AlpesLyon, Saint-Étienne, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand
Bourgogne-Franche-ComtéDijon, Besançon, Belfort, Chalon-sur-Saône
BretagneRennes, Brest, Quimper, Lorient
Centre-Val de LoireTours, Orléans, Bourges, Blois
CorseAjaccio, Bastia, Albitreccia, Calenzana
Grand EstStrasbourg, Reims, Metz, Mulhouse
Hauts-de-FranceLille, Amiens, Roubaix, Tourcoing
NormandieLe Havre, Rouen, Caen, Évreux
Nouvelle-AquitaineBordeaux, Limoges, Poitiers, Pau
OccitanieToulouse, Montpellier, Nîmes, Perpignan
Pays de la LoireNantes, Angers, Le Mans, Saint-Nazaire
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurMarseille, Nice, Toulon, Aix-en-Provence
Île-de-FranceParis, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Montreuil, Boulogne-Billancourt

Test data for France

There is no widely reserved fictional phone range here, so the generator leaves phone numbers out. Generated addresses use real towns and postcode areas with invented streets and names, so they are safe for form testing, mockups and documentation.

Generate realistic France addresses in the local format, then copy them or download CSV and JSON.

Open the France address generator