There’s lots of good advice and PDF info sheets here - https://bsnvar.org/
They were a great support to me when my husband died in 2024.
My condolences, this must be a challenging situation for you.
Here’s the direct link to “what you do” Death in France | What to Do When Someone Dies | BSN
You are both right as a lot depends on where the death took place. Generally it is a medical professional who confirms that the person is dead, but the ongoing certificates of death are written by the mairie.
My OH died in hospital in the town who issued the certificates (10 in total all originals and hand signed) and not our local Mairie. I had to go to the hospital a few weeks later to get an attestation from the doctor in the reanimation dept as to what the cause of death was for insurance purposes in the UK.
I wish I’d known that @Shiba in the days after Fran died, 2 years today since I got that, surprising to me, call. I had no idea that I could get more information than the traditional French attestation demands and suppose it is too late now.
I had no choice as the three insurance companies for policies he took out before we were even married were there to collect but they had to make sure the paperwork was legitimate and that he was actually dead and what cause hence the trip back to the hospital. It maybe possible to find out and get something from hospital records but in France health records etc I believe, are secret so you would probably have to use a lawyer to find out.
That must have been painful for you Shiba. I can imagine it was a terrible time for you. It never really totally goes away does it.
No it does not but gets easier each year and you remember the good stuff more. What upsets me more than anything else now is that he never got to see his daughter get married or meet his grandchildren and the five year old keeps asking where he has gone. One thing that will stick with me forever is the kindness of the people of the commune where we lived for such a long time and he was always helping the old girls with little problems to do with their houses they were afraid to get outsiders in like replacing a slipped roof tile or a dripping tap and never charged them
Thank you but it isn’t important enough for that, we neither of us had insurance and the 2 year delay on the release of her savings account is I believe normal in France. In any case either the notaire is not doing his job and won’t tell me or her children are blocking it in some way.
My deepest condolences and sympathies.
Look, I also have v limited French fluency. I don’t know where to start on many things. However, I’ve been using AI with a combination of ChatGPT and Claude, and this has been a revelation.
Open up a free account on each of these, input your queries and it can explain to you in detail the current process for anything in France, the appropriate departments to write to, give you contact numbers & addresses, draft letters and emails for you, make suggestions to tailor your own circumstances.
For us it’s been a godsend, we’ve managed to organise quotes for big construction work & repairs, interact with builders and insurers, with AI drafting perfect responses in French and clearly knowing current and prevailing rules, bureaucracy, red-tape, costings etc etc . Try it out and see how you get along - best of luck!
I get that, but do double check stuff as it does make mistakes!
He’s given himself to science - so not an issue. Already taken.
My condolences.
For other group members, the following may be helpful.
My bank Credit Agricole have been pushing for us to take an « obsèque » plan. In this case it could have been very helpful. As long as someone local knows that you have died (perhaps make sure a neighbour knows that you have a plan), a specialist takes over everything involved after death, even flying children in. As I understand it, you provide all the details of what you want to happen and who should be contacted. Where your will is. Investments and life insurance etc. They can then look after funeral arrangements and availability of funds for a surviving partner, and other legal matters.
What would happen tho’ if the person decided later in life to leave France? That seems to be what quite a few UK immigrants do. Would this plan then be a waste of money?
Proper planning could be as helpful (not that I have done this yet!) apart from flying people in.
I think that sounds really useful for people like us who have no close family and whose friends are as old as we are and have their own issues and really don’t want to be burdened with ours.
We (hopefully) will be in the UK by the time one of us faces this. But if we were staying here we certainly would have done this - not least, it sounds a good idea to have someone (and money involved) getting all the necessary details in place in good time. I started after I’d had my pacemaker fitted, but then I felt better and gave up. 
Living alone as I do, this is exactly what I have done. Each midday, reminded by my phone alarm, I send an OK message to a friend who only acts if he doesn’t receive it within an hour. My neighbours, a younger couple will investigate if my shutters are not open by midday. There is of course a flaw in all plans as was pointed out when I fell in the forest in December. It was after midday and both of those things had been done, so no-one alerted to the fact that I was immobile on the ground. If I had not, after half an hour, been able to reach my phone, and if my dog had not kept me warm, I would have died in the frozen night to follow. But you do what you can do and no more.
I haven’t done it yet so I am not sure. We were talking about 5000 put aside. So I think some would come back.
Well done. Very organised.
Some basic things remain important. What happens to the house if owned by one half of a couple. Will usufruit apply? Will the partner still have access to bank accounts? Does the will meet French law? Is the car in both names?
There are some good death plans available. Too many people I know have gone without any warning.
A lot of these pre-paid funeral plans/companies have gone bust too! Many not covered by any sort of insurance repayment to those who bought them. Always be aware of this. If you have no family, you can alway try and ask the mairie to take over as they will know about your death first so giving instructions on paper with your favoured Notaire, your bank etc and they may oblige you.
You certainly need to check the small print. A friend of mine paid into a French funeral plan for years. But in the last year of her life she suffered some sort of cognitive decline. And stopped paying the premiums. And bills in general. When her son tried to use the insurance after she died, he found it had lapsed.