How do I Find an Address in France?

When in France

• 1

  Study the format. Mailing addresses in France are very similar to those in the United States and Canada, with the exception of the postal code placement.

  The first line is the addressee, either a person or a business. Use the appropriate title. will be "M." for "Monsieur" is the French equivalent of "Mr." Use "Mlle." short for "mademoiselle," which means "miss" for an unmarried woman and "Mme." for "madame," or "Mrs." Note that in French, the term "madame" does not necessarily imply that the woman is married, it is also a term meant to imply respect for an adult woman regardless of marital status. The second line is the physical street address and the third line is the postal code followed by the city name. The final line is the country, in all capital letters. For example:

  M. Jean Deau

  123 Rue Charles de Gaulle

  75006 Paris

  FRANCE

• 2

  Use an online mapping program such as Mapquest, AAA, "ViaMichelin" or Google Maps. Alternatively, use a GPS that works in Europe to plan your route. Simply, put in your starting address or cross streets and your destination address and the software will plot your route. On a recent trip to France, my parents mapped their driving directions from Charles de Gaulle airport to my friend's house more than 400 miles away beforehand with Mapquest. If you know where you will be staying, you can map the turn-by-turn route you will take to the attractions you wish to see.

• 3

  Check the "Yellow Pages." Indeed, France's telephone directories in telephone booths and hotel rooms are just like they are in America, white and yellow. "Les pages jaunes," just like their yellow U.S. counterparts, are listed by business or service category, and the white pages are alphabetical listings of people and businesses. For example, to find the address for The Louvre, use the white pages to search for "Louvre." In the Yellow Pages, search under the category for "Musées," which means museum, and then find the specific museum "Le Louvre."

• 4

  Use Minitel. Nearly 15 years before the Internet was ubiquitous in American homes, the French had "minitel," an interactive computer portal that uses French phone lines to look up addresses, find merchants and handle secure credit-card transactions. It looks like a miniature computer plugged into the phone or a community phone jack. The opening screen is just like an address bar in a Web browser and works using the same technology.