Postal Codes in France - Format

Format

The postal code (French: code postal) consists of five digits. In metropolitan France the first two digits are the number of the département where the post office in charge of delivery to a town is located. There are some places where this is different to the department where the place is located. In the Overseas Departments and Territories, the first three digits identify the département or territory. The digits 00 are used for Military addresses. The digits 20 are used for all of Corsica; the split of the island into two départements was not followed by a change in the postal codes.

The next three digits identify the local postal office in charge of mail delivery. A regular postcode always ends with a 0, with the notable exception of Paris, Lyon and Marseille – see below – and the Overseas Départements and Territories. Postcodes not ending with a 0 may indicate a special code, known as CEDEX (see below), or newest postcodes.

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 8e

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:

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 Territories), 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 due to their new status as overseas collectivities. 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