Postal code france

France 🇫🇷

This is the France Post Code page. This page includes the following content: Code Method, Envelope Example and Address Format, the way of writing the postal code correctly, reference link for postcode inquiries.

Envelope Example

Coding Method

The postcodes of France began to be used in 1972 and consist of 5 numbers, e.g：

The first two digits represent the departement. The last three digits identify a more precise location. Due to France’s complicated administrative divisions, the postcode structure varies in different departments or regions.

1. Postcodes of the departments of the continental France

A regular postcode always ends with a 0. In each departement, the préfecture (main city) has a postcode ending with 000 (except París, Marsella y Lyon), for example, the postcode of Bourges(the capital of Cher)is 18000.

The postcode of the vice-capital of each department usually ends with 00. For example, Mortagne-au-Perche(the vice-capital of Orne), has a postcode of 61400.

The postcode of Lépaud(a small town in Creuse)is 23170. Many towns share the same postcode.

The more important the city, the simpler the postcode.

2. Postcodes of París, Marsella y Lyon

Paris, Marseille, and Lyon are the three largest cities in France, so each city is divided into many districts marked with numbers. Each district has its own postcode, and the last two digits of the postcode are the district code. For example, the postcode for the 8th arrondissement of Paris is 75008.

Paris 16th district is an exception to this rule, which has two postcodes: 75016 (south) and 75116 (north).

3. Postcodes of overseas territories and collectivities in France

The postcodes of the overseas territories and collectivities in France usually start with a 3-digit number which is the code of the oversea territory and collectivity.

For example, the code of French Guiana is 973, so the postcode of French Guiana Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is 97320.

4. CEDEX and postcodes of Monaco

CEDEX or Courrier d’Entrepriseà Distribution EXceptionnelle («Special distribution of company mail») is a system designed for recipients of large amounts of mail. Public organizations or companies that have a need to receive large amounts of mail can apply a CEDEX postcode. The postcode ends with three unique numbers, for example:

12 rue de Broquedis

64205 Biarritz CEDEX

CEDEX should always be written in capitals.

The French postal code system is also used in Monaco as if it were a French département numbered 98. However the destination country that has to be indicated, when sending a letter from outside the country, is «Monaco» and not «France».

12 avenue de la Costa

Address Format

France PostCode Search

Description：You can enter any address in Canada to search.

Postal Codes of France

Postal codes were introduced in France in 1964, when La Poste introduced automated sorting. They were updated to use the current 5 digit system in 1972. France uses five-digit numeric postal codes, the first two digits representing the département in which the city is located. The département numbers were assigned alphabetically between 1860 and 1870, but later changes (such as renaming and splitting of départements) mean that the list is no longer in strictly alphabetical order. The system also extends to French overseas departments and territories, and also includes Monaco. Note that postcodes in both départements of Corsica commence with the «20» historically assigned to Corsica before it was split into two départements, which are now numbered 2A and 2B. The last three digits identify a more precise location, 000 being in general reserved for the préfecture. However, in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the last two digits indicate the arrondissement. For example, 80000 corresponds to Amiens, which is the préfecture of the Somme or département 80, while 69008 corresponds to the 8th arrondissement of Lyon.

Франция 🇫🇷

Это страница с Франция почтовым кодом. Эта страница включает в себя следующее содержание: метод кода, пример конверта и формат адреса, способ правильного написания почтового кода, ссылка для запросов почтового индекса.

Envelope Example

Метод кодирования

Франция использует пять-значный цифровой почтовые индексы. Они были обновлены, чтобы использовать текущую 5 цифр системы в 1972 году.e.g：

Первые две цифры представляющие департаменте, в которой город расположен. последние три цифры определить более точные location.000 бытия вообще, отведенные для префектуры.

Адрес формате

In Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the last two digits of the postal code indicate the arrondissement. Prior to 1972, an address in the eighth arrondissement in Paris, would be written as:

8 rue Chambiges Paris 8 e

This number was incorporated into the postal code as:

8 rue Chambiges 75008 Paris

An exception to this rule is the XVIe arrondissement of Paris, which has two postal codes, 75016 (south) and 75116 (north).

In each département, the préfecture (main city) has a postal code ending with 000, for example Bourges in Cher (department):

15 avenue du Général Leclerc 18000 Bourges

The more important the city, the simpler the postal code. The sous-préfectures are generally recognized by using a XXX00 postcode. Here is for example the postal code of a small village, Lépaud in Creuse:

16 grande rue 23170 Lépaud

And the postal code of Mortagne-au-Perche, sous-préfecture of the Département de l’Orne:

4 rue des Quinze Fusillés 61400 Mortagne-au-Perche

It is not rare that many adjacent villages share the same postal code, which is primarily associated with a bigger post office, e.g.: 64150 can correspond to Abidos, Bésingrand, Lagor, Lahourcade, Mourenx, Noguère, Os Marsillon, Pardies, Sauvelade and Vielleségure.

Overseas Départements and Territories use 3-digit codes starting with : 971 (Guadeloupe), 972 (Martinique), 973 (French Guiana), 974 (Réunion), 975 (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), 976 (Mayotte), 984 (French Southern and Antarctic Lands), 986 (Wallis and Futuna), 987 (French Polynesia), 988 (New Caledonia). In March 2008 La Poste proposed allotting 977 to Saint Barthélemy and 978 to Saint Martin (France) due to their new status as Overseas collectivity.

In this case, the last zero is dropped so as to keep the 5-digit format. This is why the regular postcodes for these do not end with 0 except for the préfecture or sous-préfecture, for example:

Maison du Port 97100 Basse-Terre 4 boulevard du Général de Gaulle 97320 Saint-Laurent du Maroni 193 RN2 97439 Sainte-Rose

CEDEX

There is also a system known as CEDEX, Courrier d’Entreprise à Distribution EXceptionnelle («special mail distribution for companies»), designed for recipients of large volumes of mail. A postal code is allocated to each large organisation or to post office box holders, ending in three unique digits, for example:

12 rue de Broquedis 64205 Biarritz CEDEX

CEDEX should always be written in capitals. It may be followed by a number, if the town has more than one post office, or if it is split into arrondissements.

Ordinary deliveries would be addressed to:

12 rue de Broquedis 64200 Biarritz

It is acceptable to include a boîte postale (post office box) number as well as the street address in CEDEX addresses.

Monaco

The French postal code system is also used in Monaco as if it were a French département numbered 98. However the destination country that has to be indicated, when sending a letter from outside the country, is «Monaco» and not «France».

12 avenue de la Costa 98000 Monaco MONACO 23 Avenue Prince Héréditaire Albert 98025 Monaco CEDEX MONACO

Postal codes in France

Format

8 rue Chambiges Paris 8 e

This number was incorporated into the postal code as:

8 rue Chambiges 75008 Paris

An exception to this rule is the XVI e arrondissement, which has two postal codes, 75016 (south) and 75116 (north).

Outside of Paris, the cities of Lyon and Marseille are also divided into arrondissements, which are part of the postal code:

11 rue Duhamel 69002 Lyon

2 avenue du Maréchal Foch 13004 Marseille

15 avenue du Général Leclerc 18000 Bourges

The more important the city, the simpler the postal code. The «sous-préfectures» are generally recognized by using a XXX00 postcode. Here is for example the postal code of a small village, Lépaud in Creuse :

16 grande rue 23170 Lépaud

And the postal code of Mortagne-au-Perche, «sous-préfecture» of the Département de l’ Orne :

4 rue des Quinze Fusillés 61400 Mortagne-au-Perche

It is not rare that many adjacent villages share the same postal code, which is primarily associated with a bigger post office, e.g.: 64150 can correspond to Abidos, Bésingrand, Lagor, Lahourcade, Mourenx, Noguère, Os Marsillon, Pardies, Sauvelade and Vielleségure.

Maison du Port 97100 Basse-Terre

4 boulevard du Général de Gaulle 97320 Saint-Laurent du Maroni

193 RN2 97439 Sainte-Rose

CEDEX

There is also a system known as CEDEX, «Courrier d’Entreprise à Distribution EXceptionnelle», designed for recipients of large volumes of mail. A postal code is allocated to each large organisation or to post office box holders, ending in three unique digits, for example:

2 place Jussieu 75251 Paris CEDEX 05

The ’05’ is for the V e arrondissement. CEDEX should always be written in capitals.

Ordinary deliveries would be addressed to:

2 place Jussieu 75005 Paris

It is also acceptable to include a «boîte postale» (post office box) number as well as the street address in CEDEX addresses.

Monaco

The French postal code system is also used in Monaco as if it were a French département numbered 98. However the destination country that has to be indicated, when sending a letter from outside the country, is «Monaco» and not «France».

12 avenue de la Costa 98000 Monaco MONACO

23 Avenue Prince Héréditaire Albert 98025 Monaco Cedex MONACO

ee also

* Département in France

References

External links

* [http://www.laposte.fr/sna/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=59 Les Codes Postaux et CEDEX]
* [http://www.geopostcodes.com/fr/france.htm Find a French postcode]

Look at other dictionaries:

Postal codes in Norway — Norwegian Postal Codes are 4 digit codes, known in Norwegian as postnummer (literally post number ). Posten, the Norwegian postal service, makes small modifications to the postal code system each year. In 1999 Posten made considerable changes to… … Wikipedia

List of postal codes — This list shows an overview of postal code notation schemes for all countries that have postal/ZIP code systems:Key* 9: Digits. * A: Letters. * *: Postal code placed to the right of the region, city, suburb or town.A B* Afghanistan : No postal… … Wikipedia

List of postal codes in Portugal — Aveiro districtMealhada municipality*3050 Antes *3050 Barcouço *3050 Casal Comba *3050 Luso *3050 Mealhada *3050 Pampilhosa *3050 Vacariça *3050 Ventosa do BairroMurtosa municipality*3870 Bunheiro *3870 Monte *3870 Murtosa *3870 TorreiraOliveira… … Wikipedia

Postal code — For computer POST codes, see Power On Self Test. Postcodes are generally clearly visible outside Australia Post offices … Wikipedia

postal system — System that allows persons to send letters, parcels, or packages to addressees in the same country or abroad. Postal systems are usually government run and paid for by a combination of user charges and government subsidies. There are early… … Universalium

France — This article is about the country. For a topic outline on this subject, see List of basic France topics. For other uses, see France (disambiguation). Infobox Country native name = La République Française conventional long name = The French… … Wikipedia

Codes Postaux Canadiens — Un code postal canadien est une chaîne de six caractères qui fait partie d une adresse postale au Canada. Tout comme les codes postaux britanniques, les codes postaux du Canada sont alphanumériques, alors que dans la plupart des autres pays du… … Wikipédia en Français

Municipal arrondissements of France — This article is part of the series on Administrative divisions of France Main article Regions (incl. overseas regions … Wikipedia

Postal services in Andorra — are unique in that they are not operated by the Principality itself, but its two larger neighbouring countries, Spain and France. This is a legacy of the centuries of de facto control exercised by those two countries over Andorra. Today Correos… … Wikipedia

Postal 2 — Postal² Pour les articles homonymes, voir Postal. Postal² Éditeur Whiptail Interactive Développeur Running With Scissors Date de sortie … Wikipédia en Français

Postal codes for France

3. Pick up by the courier!

French postal service has its origins in the Middle Ages. Initially, distribution services were mainly made for the noble houses, especially in cities where war messages were communicated. This way human being had to travel very far away all by foot. In time, however, postal routes began to be made on horseback.

French postal code History

On 1st January 1965 in France there were introduced the postal codes for the first time. These zip codes originally consisted of two digits. At the time, this postal codes ranged from 01 to 95. In the same year, postal codes of the French telegraphic administration were fully completed. Since then, there is a two-digit number postal code, which will be added to the first three letters of the station, such as Marseille: 13 mar.

French postcode system

The current system was introduced on 3 June 1972 and consists of five digits. The first two digits of this number, containing five digits, are used in metropolitan France to delimit the number of the districts. In big cities, the ZIP code ends with three zeros, such as Nice for instance: 06000. An exception is the Department of Common Borders, where, often, the postal code is provided by the adjacent post offices. In big cities such as Paris, Marseille and Lyon, the last two numbers indicate the different neighborhoods such as Paris VIII: 75008 Paris.

ZIP codes of the French overseas territories

In the overseas territories such as Guadeloupe, St Martin, Martinique, French Guyana, Reunion, French Polynesia and New Caledonia the first three digits of the postal code represents the name of the department.

CAP Monaco

Principality of Monaco has a French «Zip»: 98000 Monaco.

Important postal codes in France

Below you will find the main French postal codes. Paris zip codes are contained between 75001 and 75020, and also 75116. Lyon ZIP codes are between 69001 and 69009. In Nice, there are the following zip codes: 06000, 06100, 06200, 06300. ZIP codes in Bordeaux ranges between 33,000 and 33,300 plus 33800. Marseille has the ZIP codes begging with 13001 till 13016, and is in accordance with the Municipal Department. If the «Zip» you are looking for is not listed, you will definitely find it in our postal codes list.

French Postal Codes and the French Address Format

Postal codes in France are similar to ZIP Codes in the United States. For example, the postal code / ZIP Code for the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is 75007. Paris has approximately 20 ZIP Codes or postal codes. These codes help La Poste (the French postal service) efficiently sort and deliver post and parcels.

(If you’re looking for the ZIP code/postal code for a specific address in France, you can use this free postal address verification tool.)

Contents

French Postal Codes

A French postal code today is five digits consisting solely of numbers; no letters, no spaces, no hyphens, much like the US ZIP Code system. La Poste does not utilize ZIP+4 Codes. There are over 30,000 officially recognized postal codes in France.

(If you’re looking for the ZIP Code/postal code for a specific address in France, you can use this free postal address lookup tool)

The composition of the postal codes is based on what are called «départements»—administrative subdivisions that roughly resemble a US county. The first two numbers match the number of the département where you can find the destination city. Department numbers were originally assigned alphabetically back in the 1800s, though there have been a number of small changes to the list over the years, so the organization is not as strict as it once was. The other three numbers in the code indicate what post office will actually handle the job of dropping the letter off.

Most postcodes end in a zero, though there are some exceptions. Those exceptions include some of the larger cities, overseas territories, and post office boxes, to name a few. Some postcodes encompass multiple villages, which usually happens because said villages are all served by the same post office. Occasionally, one of those villages may actually belong to a different département, which means that the first two digits of the postal code won’t match that village’s département. This is very similar to how the ZIP Code system works in the US.

Another example of variation from the strict system is what’s called «CEDEX,» which stands for Courrier d’Entreprise à Distribution EXceptionnelle, or «special business mail.» This term is applied to a number of different categories of nonstandard mail, including recipients who receive large quantities of post and post office boxes. For all of these, an individualized post code is given. This is similar to systems in other countries, where a particular building, organization, or business might require its own designated post code.

French Address Example

Here’s an example of a properly formatted French address:

The address should be placed on the bottom right hand corner of the face of the envelope.

French Address Format

The three core details of any French address are the recipient (or addressee), the street address, and the postcode/locality lines, just like in most countries. These are the lines that will be in every address. Additional information is often used to add specificity or clarity to the delivery instructions.

Here is the order for address details in a French address. Note: required items are in BOLD.

Line 1: Name, title, and other pleasantries

Line 2: Secondary address information (apartment number, etc.)—optional

Line 3: Information regarding access (building name, entrance number/location, etc.)—optional

Line 4: Street name and number

Line 5: Additional information for aiding in delivery (PO box, lieu-dit, etc.)—optional

Line 6: Postal code and name of city or other applicable locality

Line 7:Country of destination—optional (only necessary for international mail)

France’s postal address format accommodates a surprising amount of supplemental information. The format’s pretty strict though. For starters, address cannot be any longer than six lines (seven for international). There’s also a lot of CAPS LOCK going on. We’ll show you what we mean.

The example address we shared previously in this article was a pretty standard French address. It’s almost as short as an address can be. The only way it could be shorter is if it was a domestic letter, and didn’t need the international line. If that was the case, it would look like this:

That’s as basic as a French address can get. The thing is, there can be up to twice as many lines as this. So you might instead be encountering this:

The only two remaining details that need discussing here are corporate addresses and CEDEX addresses (the two of which are not mutually exclusive). A corporate address, for lack of better words, installs a supervisor over the addressee, thereby shifting the recipient’s name to the second line. Behold:

Aside from the self-assertion of the corporation over the terminal addressee, the address remains unchanged. Also, business names (or at least the last word in the name) are capitalized, similar to the last names of recipients.

Now, to complicate things a little bit further—CEDEX addresses are addresses with their own postal code, most frequently seen in the case of post office boxes. If that business address was, say, a PO box rather than an internal address in a building, it would look like this:

The PO box number—preceded by the letters «BP» for «Boîte Postale,» or «postal box»—takes its seat on the fifth line, and the word «CEDEX» is added after the locality of the post office, in all caps. Also, the PO box doesn’t replace the physical address of the recipient; that keeps its seat at the cool kids table.

Now there is the confusing occasion where that creates a problem: sometimes the post office where the box in question is located is not in the locality where the recipient keeps an address. There’s a fix for that. Simply add the locality of the post office to the line with the PO box number, like so:

You may note that in this last example the CEDEX had a number; that’s in case a city has multiple post offices, to indicate which one is the destination.

La Poste

La Poste is the primary postal courier for the nation of France. Like other postal providers that we have discussed here at Smarty, France has a long and rich postal history, and it is a diversified organization that capitalizes on that history to serve its customers in a wide variety of ways. Among the services they offer are traditional postal services, banking and insurance, real estate, and a mobile phone network. Though not as sizable as DHL/Deutsche Post, they are a sizable organization—they’re the second-largest employer in France, behind only the French government. La Poste is the result of over 800 years of shipping endeavors; here are some highlights of that history.

Things started in the Middle Ages with private enterprises. Universities were the big players starting back in the 13th century, which makes sense—a large group of people who regularly need to communicate information with other groups of eggheads. 1576 saw the debut of «royal envoys»—the first government-run postal organization that offered services to private individuals in France. Use of the royal envoys eventually led to the creation of the very first post offices later that century.

Skip forward another hundred years, and France saw the first telegram in the world. Fifty years later, France started using postage stamps less than a decade after the UK invented them. And in 1874, France was one of the founding members of what was then the General Postal Union; we now know this organization as the Universal Postal Union, or UPU.

1964 brought the rise of postal codes in France, and the ’90s saw the split of PTT. The company was broken down along the line of «Does a postman carry it?», separating the telecommunications from the mail. The mail service became La Poste, and the other part became France Télécom, which is now known as «Orange.» Like the color.

Orange was turned into a private company almost immediately, but La Poste has resisted progressive moves like that; they only opened up their monopoly to competition in 2005 (to competitors like DHL) and as of 2015 still holds the status of «public limited company,» even as La Poste’s contemporaries like Royal Mail and Deutsche Post have made the jump to privatization.

La Poste Services

Behind DHL, La Poste is the second biggest mail provider in Europe; they hold an impressive 15% of the market. La Poste also offers one of the widest selections of services possible for a business like theirs. Their full name is «Groupe La Poste,» and it’s quite the umbrella, containing the following subsidiaries:

La Banque Postale is a bank. It provides regular banking services, as well as insurance. Geopost covers logistics, and that’s apparently a big deal. They’re an umbrella within an umbrella, housing all express subsidiaries. In France, that’s the courier services Chronopost and Exapaq. Worldwide, it’s the brands DPD, Yurtiçi Kargo, and Seur GeoPost.

La Poste Mobile is an entire mobile network (yes, like the ones that brag about 4G LTE), run by a parent company that also runs the mail. Mediaprism is communication counselling, Docapost handles document archiving, and Poste Immo is real estate (of all things). So, yes, they’re casting quite a wide net, and that net is helping counteract the downturn in business coming from the rise in internet communications.

Now, for La Poste itself: they offer first class, second class, and «green letter» delivery. Green letter is a more eco-friendly alternative that was introduced in 2011, and produces 15% less CO2 than first class. At the time of this article, it catches about 20% of the French market.

Now let’s set all of this aside, and talk about the really fun stuff.

La Poste Prohibitions

It’s important to know what can and cannot be sent in the mail. But while many prohibited items are just common sense (like substances that might turn the mail truck into another Hindenburg), others require a bit of a heads up. Otherwise, we might not know the dangers of balloons [anchor tag] or of shipping a cat of ambiguous vitality [anchor tag].

So we put together a handy list of things that you shouldn’t send, but might not otherwise think of on your own. Now La Poste does not have a an official English list of what’s permissible to ship into and within the nation of France. And though we’re all talented at a great many things here at Smarty (formerly SmartyStreets), only two of us knows any passable French.

To counteract this deficiency, we did some research, and found out what other postal carriers are allowed to ship to France and the French postal system. We figure, if other big name couriers aren’t allowed to ship it, then you’re bound to have a hard time getting it in and out of the country. Here’s the list:

Undeliverable Mail

Mail in France is undeliverable for the same reasons it’s undeliverable most places: bad addresses. The most obvious example is a wrong address. If you address a letter to «5 Pivot Drive» but you intended the letter to go to «4 Pivot Drive,» the mail may be undeliverable. A quick-thinking postman might recognize the error and work off of the recipients names, but if the difference between addressed mail and intended destination is more severe you may be out of luck.

Mail might also be returned to sender because the intended recipients are no longer the current residents. If they have moved on and left no forwarding address, then the mail can’t be delivered to them. The same goes for invalid addresses: if the address has not been registered with the postal service, or there is no recipient at the address, or there is no address (i.e., there’s no building there to deliver to), then the mail won’t be delivered there.

In short, it might be helpful to double-check your address and validate before you try to ship. It’s as quick as a button click, but it may save you the price of returned postage, and weeks to months of waiting.

Conclusion

France is a cool place: they have the city of love, the Eiffel Tower, and world-class fine dining. Their postal system is easily as impressive, and they’re happy to take your letter to your penpal living on the banks of the Seine, or ship your souvenir (that’s the French word for «souvenir») home if you’re visiting.

If you’re looking for some additional information on them, we can help you find what you need. We can also help you verify an address like we mentioned above, so feel free to do that, too. Above all, when mailing to France, remember to keep it to six (or seven) lines, and use that CAPS LOCK responsibly.

Postal codes in France

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Postal codes were introduced in France in 1964, when La Poste introduced automated sorting. They were updated to use the current 5 digit system in 1972.

France uses five-digit numeric postal codes, the first two digits representing the département in which the city is located. The département numbers were assigned alphabetically between 1860 and 1870, but later changes (such as renaming and splitting of départements) mean that the list is no longer in strictly alphabetical order. The system also extends to French overseas departments and territories, and also includes Monaco. Note that postcodes in both départements of Corsica commence with the «20» historically assigned to Corsica before it was split into two départements, which are now numbered 2A and 2B.

The last three digits identify a more precise location, 000 being in general reserved for the préfecture. However, in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the last two digits indicate the arrondissement. For example, 80000 corresponds to Amiens, which is the préfecture of the Somme or département 80, while 69008 corresponds to the 8th arrondissement of Lyon.