French addresses put the house number before the street and a five-digit postal code before the town, and business mail often carries a CEDEX code that is not a normal postcode. La Poste routes on the postal code, so a CEDEX mix-up or wrong code is the usual cause of returns. Here is the format and how to validate it.
A French label is recipient, the house number and street, then the postal code and town, then the country.
Marie Dubois personal or business recipient12 Rue de Rivoli house number first, then the street name75001 Paris 5-digit code, then the communeFRANCE required for inbound international shipmentsThe code postal drives La Poste's routing and its first two digits identify the department. Large-volume business recipients use a CEDEX code, which looks like a postcode but routes to a dedicated PO service.
The country-specific rules that generic autocomplete and single-line address fields tend to get wrong.
French addresses write the number then the street: 12 Rue de Rivoli. This is the opposite of German or Swedish order, so a shared checkout form must not force one rule for all of Europe.
High-volume businesses use a CEDEX code (75008 PARIS CEDEX 08). It resembles a postcode but directs mail to a dedicated distribution service, so it should not be treated as a residential code.
The first two digits of the code postal identify the department (75 Paris, 13 Bouches-du-Rhône). A transposition sends the parcel to a different region.
Names and streets use é, è, à, ç. Keep them or transliterate consistently, since a mix can cause mismatches in carrier systems.
Each of these passes a basic "is this field filled in" check but fails at the carrier, turning into a redelivery, a return, or an address correction fee.
Rue de Rivoli 12 instead of 12 Rue de Rivoli is read wrong.Rivoli spellings or dropping accents can cause mismatches.How the major carriers handle France addresses, and what your label needs to satisfy each one.
The national postal operator and its parcel service. Routing is code-postal driven, so a valid five-digit code, or a correct CEDEX line, is the key field.
Major express and pickup-point carriers for French ecommerce. They expect the number-then-street order and a clean postal code and town.
International carriers for inbound shipments. Include the country line; an accurate postal code avoids customs and routing delays.
Address Guard checks France addresses against carrier and postal databases before the order ships, normalizes the format, and flags the errors that cause failed deliveries. 240+ countries, $0.05 per check.
Part of the Address Guard international address format guide, covering 240+ countries.