Winedrive members living in the UK can order great French wine from home at low vineyard prices and have it shipped to Calais, then take a cheap day return from Dover to collect it. But if you prefer to visit the vineyard and taste their wines, finding an address in rural France can become something of an adventure.
The French have their own standard layout for postal addresses. If you are heading for a vineyard, it could be several kilometres away from the town or village shown in its address, which is why WineDrive Premier Pages give you exact driving directions.
Many houses do not have numbers and there may be no street name, although this is beginning to change. Addresses without numbers or street names are usually small hamlets near to a village. For example:
Chez Moquerat
86400 Lizant
'Chez Moquerat' is the name of the hamlet
'86400' is the post code (zip) made up from '86' which represents the département (in this case La Vienne) and '400', the area code.
'Lizant' is the name of the village or small commune that the hamlet of Chez Moquerat comes under. For the driver, these hamlets are always signposted with black lettering on a white background.
When addressing a postal package or envelope, it is normal practice for the Surname to be written before the Christian name and it usually appears in upper case (capital letters).