Can’t find my address online

This might help - it gives you a list of all the lieu-dits in a commune.
https://territoires-fr.fr/lieux-list1.php

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We’re currently buying a house and the address says ‘lieu dit’ - what does it mean please?

The road to a hamlet is often named lieu dit the hamlet name on maps. That will be given as the address of properties on that road. When I bought my house it’s address was rue dit Le R*****, it was later given a road name within the hamlet and a house number. The address is now 7, Rue de H***, Le R*****.
Number 7, there are only five houses!

It simple means “The place called…”
It’s a bit of an anachronism, as there is a move towards giving every property a street name and house number, so mainly found in rural areas. But often used in a specific way to refer to the location of a vineyard.

Lieu dit… is a hamlet within a commune…

the postal address:
Lieu-dit… Petit Chou (whatever)…
44500(whatever)
St Hubert (whatever commune)
Dordogne (whatever department),
France…

It isn’t as rural as some of the houses we have looked at…just a bit disappointed it hasn’t got a sign with our house name on it…am I being a bit shallow? The address says Lieu Dit and the name of the hamlet. It just reads as being a bit hard to find

You can, of course, put a house name plaque on your gate/house/wherever… that is up to you

but, you must have a letter box with the names of the house occupants … clearly marked.

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Lieu-dit (as Mike says) just means “the place called” - so for example a lieu-dit can be “au bourg” which just means “village centre” and can cover a large number of properties - being a postman/woman here requires great skill and a good memory. Hence the move to numbers and road names. It’s not so easy for emergency services to find someone whose l-d is “au bourg”, nor indeed the delivery companies.
I remember when we first moved here how directions to friends for the first time always entailed instructions like “take the second fork and then turn left past the rubbish bins”

That sort of thing happens.
Our address used to apply to two properties, so it was necessary to put our names on the letter boxes.
We now have house numbers, 2 & 4 because both houses are on the same side of the lane. 1 & 3 don’t exist!

That’s interesting Mike, in our commune property numbers are based on the distance in metres from one or other end of the road, so our number is 2000 and something

Sue
Le bourg is not the same as Lieu-dit when it comes to Postal Address… although completing Delivery Information Online often consider it as such…

Le Bourg refers to that area within the village boundaries… and delivery drivers often mix up commune and village.

One chap phoned me , complaining that there was not a house in sight… just a forest. I discovered that he was just within the commune boundaries… but not within “le bourg” the village…(where the Village Sign bears the Name and speed limit automatically drops )… he was foreign and was still learning about France… :crazy_face: :crazy_face:

You are on the “new” system… we will get there too… in about 100 years :crazy_face: :crazy_face: :crazy_face:

Our present (for the next 2 weeks anyway) conseil municipal voted to put some sort of numerorotation in. It looks like the new conseil municipal (after the 2nd round) doesn’t like the idea as it’s taking away identities.

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My house has a name, it has been standing since the 17th century and has given its name to the land around it (though it is a bit of a chicken/egg question), so that is the address of the houses which have been built more recently and whose address is now the same as mine - a LD isn’t necessarily a hamlet though, it can also be just the name of a particular field or a wood and so on, just as it is in the UK. It is just that you don’t deliver post to empty fields or woods :grin:

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quite so, Vero… Lieu Dit… + letterbox/building = hamlet :crazy_face:

Lieu Dit + no letterbox, no building = still a Lieu Dit. Lieu Dit + 1 house = a Lieu Dit. Even + several houses.
Where I live isn’t a hameau, for example, to be a hameau it has to be centred on an activity or maybe have more houses.

sorry Vero… I was not arguing… I was recounting local stuff… (obviously not all over France if you are having different experience)

In our commune we have about 100 l/d’s and they are called “hamlets” by us locals … if there is a dwelling there… albeit any dwelling might be alone or one of several hidden in the lush woodlands/countryside within the same l/d…

when we are distributing pamphlets/christmas parcels… whatever… we divide the commune into its hamlets and work out the easiest way of sharing the delivery load…

as a matter of interest… are you within boundaries of a town/village or what… how do you identify your home to would-be delivery companies…

I live in a commune, outwith the bourg, the commune has many lieux-dits but also 2 hameaux! I just give the delivery company my address and if they need more help they can ring me if I’m not at work. I suppose I could give them GPS coordinates but so far that hasn’t been necessary.

if any doubt phoning is the best thing I reckon… I’ve never used GPS with delivery folk…

One time… in Paris … our gang was being led by a pal, who had bellowed to one and all… “follow me, I’ve got GPS”

Ha ha… we ended up nose-to-tail waiting at the roadside… while he dashed into the Hairdresser and came out very red-faced. (even I had guessed it was not a restaurant…)… thankfully they had pointed him in the right direction and we all enjoyed a great meal at a fabulous old mill.

Seems he had done something wrong when inputting the info
(the French was too fast for me to catch it all…)

but we all had a good laugh… with him, not at him… :hugs:

Since then I have occasionally used GPS… sometimes very useful… but not always.

The main issue with GPS in France is that postcodes are so big which is unexpected to Brits very used to simply inputting a postcode. As @vero states using GPS coordinates would work so long as the person was prepared to input them.