Your fax to a French landline
A ten-digit French landline, a PDF to send: Faxeroo routes your document to France from Belgium or any other country. First page free, optional PDF delivery receipts.
Ten digits: that's the length of a French landline, and the first two positions draw the map — 01 around Paris, 02 toward Rennes and Nantes, 03 toward Lille and Strasbourg, 04 covering Lyon, Marseille and Corsica, 05 toward Bordeaux and Toulouse. The 09 escapes this geography: these unassigned lines are most often used by internet boxes, and many fax machines are now connected to them. The 06 and 07 remain the preserve of mobiles, which cannot receive a fax.
Fax survives in very specific French sectors. Notarial offices, court registries and bar associations still circulate dated deeds; pharmacies, testing laboratories and clinics send prescriptions and reports; property managers, insurers and a host of town halls keep a fax line in their letterhead.
A reflex before hitting Send: check the number against a recent document from your correspondent, because copper is being phased out and certain fax lines now use IP telephony with new numbering. Enter it the French way, keeping the leading zero and leaving out the +33. Sending from another country? The procedure is the same: Faxeroo takes care of dialing the country code.
Sending a single page remains free, and there's no cap on the number of attempts. Beyond that, the flat rate is €3.99 incl. VAT, regardless of file length. To leave a paper trail for a file, the PDF delivery receipt option, at €2.99 incl. VAT, is only charged once the fax has reached its destination.
France: the number format to enter
| Field | Data |
|---|---|
| International dialling code | +33 |
| ISO code | FR |
| Accepted format | Ten digits in total, beginning with 01 through 05 or with 09; numbers beginning with 06 or 07 are mobiles |
| Line example | 0148817645 |
| Region | Europe |
France: sample numbers, accepted or rejected
| Number tested | Verdict | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 01 48 81 76 45 | Valid | Paris |
| 04 72 12 34 56 | Valid | Lyon |
| 09 70 12 34 56 | Valid | Non-geographic number (VoIP, internet modem) |
| 06 12 34 56 78 | Rejected | Mobile number: beyond the reach of a fax |
| 1 48 81 76 45 | Rejected | The leading zero is missing |
| 0 800 12 34 56 | Rejected | Special line (freephone or premium rate): out of scope |
Area codes of the main cities
| City or line type | Dialling code |
|---|---|
| Paris | 01 |
| Nantes | 02 |
| Lille | 03 |
| Lyon | 04 |
| Bordeaux | 05 |
| Non-geographic number (VoIP, internet modem) | 09 |
France: organisations that still receive faxes
- Notary firms, property managers and real estate agencies still accept powers of attorney, preliminary sales agreements and other signed documents by fax, especially when the signatory is outside France.
- Pharmacies, laboratories, clinics and medical practices still send prescriptions, reports and coverage requests by fax, all alongside MSSanté, the secure messaging service for healthcare professionals.
- Lawyers reach the courts through the RPVA; for everyone else, court registries specify the accepted transmission methods in their correspondence.
- Certain declarations, authorizations or signed documents still go through the fax machine of insurers, mutual insurance companies and banks; the contract specifies the procedure to follow.
No organisation number is published here: take the one from your latest letter, or from the official website.
The official digital channel
Under French law, a qualified electronic registered letter has the same legal standing as a paper registered letter; MSSanté connects the network of health professionals; the RPVA, or e-barreau, links the bar to the courts; and online professional portals on the government side have replaced most document flows.
France: time difference and office hours
| Time zone | France runs on Central European Time: UTC+1 (CET), then UTC+2 (CEST) during the summer. |
|---|---|
| Difference from Paris | No time difference: Paris and Brussels show the same time. |
| Usual hours | Offices generally work weekdays, from 9 am to 12:30 pm and then 2 pm to 5:30 pm. Public holidays overlap only partially with the Belgian calendar: May 8, July 14 and November 11 on the French side, July 21 on the Belgian side. |
France: questions about sending
- A French number from Belgium: how to enter it?
- Type the ten digits, zero included — 01 48 81 76 45 — dropping the 0033. Instead enter +33 1 48 81 76 45, and the form will restore the zero for you.
- Can a 09 number hide a fax line?
- A 09 number hides a non-geographic line, frequently an internet box: the digits alone won't reveal whether a fax machine is attached. Check recent mail from the recipient for a 'Fax' or 'Télécopie' label.
- Company switchboard and fax: same number?
- Almost never. The fax number often takes the switchboard's root and differs in the ending — …45 rather than …40, for example. Dialing the switchboard rings a regular phone and the send fails: start from the number labeled 'Fax' or 'Télécopie'.
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