The form has accepted 75334 and suggests Paris. Should you click it? First compare the suggestion with the address the recipient gave you. If its last line reads 75334 PARIS CEDEX 07, the five digits are the routing code and PARIS CEDEX 07 is the wording that goes with it. A saved label that says only 75334 PARIS has lost information.
Read the three numbers before filling anything in
In its postal instructions for whistleblowers, the French data protection authority CNIL publishes 3 place de Fontenoy, TSA 80715, 75334 PARIS CEDEX 07. Use this as a worked example. For an actual letter, take the address from the instructions for your own recipient and service.
| What a form asks for | What to enter for this example |
|---|---|
| Street address | 3 place de Fontenoy |
| Additional printed address line | TSA 80715. Keep the letters and number together on a line above the postcode and locality. |
| Postcode | 75334. The other five-digit number, 80715, belongs to the TSA line. |
| City or postal locality (free text) | PARIS CEDEX 07. If the form has a dedicated CEDEX field, follow its instructions and check the assembled line before sending. |
La Poste’s addressing guide places special delivery information such as TSA or BP on line 5 when supplied. Line 6 carries the CEDEX code and its corresponding wording when the recipient has one. Copy any suffix exactly as given. If an ordinary address says only a postcode and town, leave it that way.
Check the label the recipient would see
The last two lines in this example should read:
TSA 80715
75334 PARIS CEDEX 07
Read the address after saving it or opening the label preview. If the site already added CEDEX 07 from a separate field, remove any duplicate from your entry and preview again. If TSA 80715 appears only in a driver’s instructions box, check whether that box is printed on the postal label.
Some forms accept only a town from a list. If picking Paris strips the suffix, look for a manual postal address option. If none preserves the supplied address, ask the form operator whether it supports CEDEX or ask the recipient for an alternative address for that shipment. A street address found on a map may serve visitors without being the mailing address for that service.
To test an ordinary postcode-and-city form, use the France address tool. For a real CEDEX address, use the recipient’s published details.
UPU’s guide to French postal addresses · La Poste’s addressing guide · CNIL’s instructions for the correspondence used in the example