Hi how do English residents go about getting married in France i.e paperwork e.t.c who to see where to go?
Go to the Mairie they will give you a booklet “guide des futurs époux”
This has everything you need. Basic things for France, proof of address, witnesses and their details. Also a copy of your birth certificates which must be translated by an accepted translator, they need to be less than 3 months old. Proof of divorce, If required
You may need a contract depending on your circumstances but that is a legal matter for a notaire
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I thought that only applied to French birth certificates?
The OP says UK residents, so it a bit more complex as they have to be here for I think 40 days before they can marry.
need to go to the Mairie, this was the information and requirement of our Mairie yesterday
One of them needs to have been resident in France, en situation régulière, for at least a month.
It’s all covered on the service public and gouv sites I linked to. Unless we have every relevant detail, and the knowledge, we can’t be more useful than those sites.
We had a fun time with the Mairie here, we were the first non French couple to be married here and although we knew what was needed, the woman in the Mairie was less sure and changed her mind daily 
, we got their in the end with a lot of eye rolling from the mayor and his deputy at the admin staff, it did feel at times that it would have been easier to get married back in Scotland than here, but we persevered and we’re glad we did.
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It’ll take a t least a month to sort out the paperwork 
We’ve organised our own PACS then our own marriage finally my daughter’s wedding. There’s many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip with these things.
In the final stages and at the 11th hour of my daughter’s paperwork I came to an impasse when the official insisted on a document I knew wasn’t necessary. The supervisor heard the argument and came out of his office and joined in the insistence but I wouldn’t back down. Eventually, he asked his official to give him the “rules” book and he checked the requirements himself, he looked a bit sheepish and said to her “it’s Ireland, not Iceland”. Suddenly everything was OK.
No apologies of course but the wedding went ahead.
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Takes a very special breed of self important anus to be an official generally.
There were about eight of them in the office, seven helpful ones and our one 
He should have gone to Specsavers 
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Should be careful if booking a holiday in Dublin, might find himself in Reykjavik…
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Do you absolutely have to do the legal bit in France? I’ve photographed a few “weddings” for non-French people in France (and similarly for non-locals when I lived in the Caribbean) and most opt to have a UK registry office ceremony to solemnise their actual marriage, but then to have a non-legal ceremony with all the festivities in the destination. There are quite a few British wedding celebrants based in France who make a living hosting this kind of ceremony.
I appreciate you may prefer to have the authentic experience of being married by M. le Maire, but on a practical level it could be easier to do the legal bit in the UK!!