Letters: I have four addresses for the same house in France
Connexion reader responds to a recent article on rural properties not having a proper address
Reader says that standing outside and waving her arms around works if the addresses do not (stock photograph)
ThomasLENNE / Shutterstock
To the Editor,
I write in response to Samantha David’s article regarding some properties in rural France not having proper addresses, or even any address.
We are quite the opposite, having four different addresses for the same house.
Some years ago, the community was reconfigured and the border to divide the villages of Mesnil-Mauger and Beaubec-la-Rosière (Seine-Maritime) is now between our house, officially in Mesnil-Mauger, and the field opposite, which is in Beaubec.
The village of Mesnil-Mauger is actually 4km away.
If our property is approached from one direction, the street name displayed is different to that when approached from the other.
Read more: Many small communes in France yet to finalise address changes
A very old street name is also still used at times, and our fourth address is the plot number and yet a different region given on our Deeds.
Each of our utility bills is addressed to one of the four. We receive newsletters from our Mesnil-Mauger mairie but our rubbish is collected according to the rota for Beaubec.
All very confusing until we got used to it.
Before we moved to France, we posted four envelopes to each of the four addresses and they all arrived.
Like Samantha David, we mostly receive our post and deliveries whatever part of the address is on them, and anyone who asks if they know us will probably be told that we are Les Anglaises with a willow tree in the garden and lots of cats (we have three).
Thank goodness GPS has improved over the years as, after we moved here 20 years ago, my husband often had to go out in the car and retrieve lost friends, delivery van drivers or even oil tankers on some occasions.
Another method that works well is when we tell drivers to make sure Beaubec church is on their left, cross the Avenue Verte twice and one of us will stand in the middle of the road waving our arms.
Toni Prette, Seine-Maritime
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