What to Do When Someone Dies in France: A Practical Guide
Healthcare procedures, important documents, funeral arrangements, financial help and bereavement support.
When someone dies in France, knowing what to do next can feel overwhelming, particularly if French isn’t your first language. Losing someone is difficult enough without suddenly having to understand an unfamiliar healthcare and administrative system.
You may find yourself dealing with doctors, hospitals, funeral directors, Assurance Maladie and French administration at a time when concentrating on even the simplest task feels difficult.
Who do you call if someone dies at home? Who issues the death certificate? What happens if the death is unexpected? What is the difference between a certificat de décès and an acte de décès? What happens to their French healthcare cover? And is there financial or emotional support available?
The most important thing to remember is that you don’t have to understand everything at once.
Start with what needs to happen first.
Service-Public.fr — What to do following a death
What Happens When Someone Dies at Home in France?
When someone dies at home in France, the death first needs to be formally confirmed and a medical death certificate — the certificat de décès — established by an authorised healthcare professional.
If the person has been receiving end-of-life or palliative care at home and the death was expected, their GP, nursing team, hospital-at-home or palliative care service may already have explained who should be contacted when the time comes.
Keep any instructions and telephone numbers somewhere accessible. At such an emotional moment, having this information immediately available can make things considerably easier.
If the death is unexpected and you are unsure what to do, contact SAMU on 15 or 112 for guidance.
Once the death has been medically certified, the death must be formally declared to the mairie of the commune where the person died. A funeral director — pompes funèbres — can often take care of the necessary formalities on the family’s behalf.
What Happens When Someone Dies in a French Hospital or EHPAD?
If someone dies in a hospital, clinic, EHPAD or other healthcare establishment, staff will guide you through the immediate process.
A healthcare professional establishes the medical certificate of death and the establishment handles the declaration to the appropriate civil registration service.
The mairie then produces the official acte de décès.
If the healthcare establishment has a chambre mortuaire, the deceased can normally remain there free of charge for the first three days.
A hospital chambre mortuaire should not be confused with a private chambre funéraire provided as part of funeral services, where charges may apply.
You can then choose and contact a funeral director to discuss what happens next.
What If the Death Is Sudden or Unexpected?
A sudden or unexplained death can involve a different procedure.
If the circumstances indicate a violent or suspicious death, for example following an accident or where there is a medico-legal concern, the police or gendarmerie may become involved.
The healthcare professional certifying the death may identify an obstacle médico-légal. This means that the usual funeral process cannot continue until the appropriate judicial authority has authorised it.
For relatives already in shock, hearing terms such as police, gendarmerie or obstacle médico-légal can understandably be frightening.
It does not automatically mean that somebody is suspected of wrongdoing. It means that the circumstances surrounding the death require formal investigation.
Certificat de Décès and Acte de Décès: What’s the Difference?
These two French documents are easily confused, but they have different purposes.
The certificat de décès is the medical certificate established following the death.
The acte de décès is the official civil record produced after the death has been declared to the mairie.
You will need the acte de décès for many of the administrative procedures that follow, so make sure you have access to copies.
Arranging a Funeral in France
Once the immediate medical and administrative procedures have been completed, attention turns to the funeral.
A funeral director — pompes funèbres — can guide the family through burial or cremation, transport of the deceased and many of the necessary formalities.
French law sets a timeframe within which burial or cremation should normally take place, although exceptions can be authorised in particular circumstances.
If the deceased left instructions concerning their funeral, burial or cremation, their wishes should be respected where legally possible.
Don’t be afraid to ask a funeral director to explain anything you don’t understand, particularly if French isn’t your first language.
Ask for a written quotation — a devis — and take the time you reasonably can to understand what you are agreeing to.
At a time of grief, it is very easy to agree to everything simply because making decisions feels too difficult. If possible, have a trusted friend or family member with you when discussing the arrangements.
What Happens to Assurance Maladie and the Carte Vitale After a Death?
There may still be French healthcare matters to deal with after someone dies.
If Assurance Maladie still owes healthcare reimbursements that had not been paid before the death, the deceased’s heirs or the notaire dealing with the succession may be able to claim them.
The deceased’s Carte Vitale should also be returned to their CPAM. If a death occurs in France, CPAM will generally receive notification through the national civil-status system, although additional steps may be necessary in particular circumstances.
The person’s mutuelle should also be contacted. Depending on the contract, there may be assistance or benefits connected with the death.
If the person was receiving healthcare at home — perhaps nursing care, hospital-at-home services, oxygen therapy or rented medical equipment — contact the relevant providers so that services can be stopped and equipment collected.
Is Financial Help Available After a Death in France?
In some circumstances, yes.
One form of financial support that families may not know about is the capital décès.
Depending on the deceased’s circumstances before their death, Assurance Maladie may pay a death benefit to eligible beneficiaries.
This can apply in a number of situations, including certain employees, people receiving unemployment benefits, recipients of an invalidity pension and some self-employed people, subject to the relevant conditions.
Importantly, capital décès is not paid automatically. You must apply for it.
If you are considered a priority beneficiary, you normally have one month from the date of death to make your claim while retaining priority status. Other eligible claims can generally be made within two years.
There may also be financial assistance or death benefits available through:
a mutuelle
an employer
a workplace prévoyance scheme
pension arrangements
life insurance
funeral insurance
other policies held by the deceased
Don’t assume there is no help available simply because nobody has contacted you.
Ask.
What Administration Needs to Be Done After a Death in France?
Unfortunately, bereavement and paperwork tend to arrive together.
Depending on the person’s circumstances, organisations that may need to be informed can include their mutuelle, pension providers, employer, banks, insurers, tax authorities, utility providers and other organisations with which they held accounts or contracts.
A notaire may also need to become involved with the estate and succession.
But you do not have to accomplish everything on the first day.
Deal with what is immediately necessary first: having the death medically certified, ensuring it is formally declared and making the immediate arrangements for the deceased.
Then work through everything else methodically.
One simple thing I recommend is creating a dedicated folder, either on paper or digitally.
Keep copies of the acte de décès, quotations, invoices, healthcare correspondence, insurance information and other important documents together.
Make a note of who you speak to, the date and what was agreed.
Grief affects concentration and memory. Writing things down isn’t excessive organisation; at a time like this, it can be an invaluable support.
Bereavement Support in France
There is another aspect of healthcare following a death that should never be overlooked: the health of the people left behind.
Grief doesn’t only affect our emotions.
It can affect sleep, appetite, concentration and memory. It can bring exhaustion, anxiety, anger, guilt and physical symptoms. Sometimes grief arrives immediately and overwhelmingly. Sometimes its full impact isn’t felt until weeks or months later.
There is no correct way to grieve and no timetable you are expected to follow.
If you’re struggling after a bereavement in France, your médecin traitant or GP can be a good first point of contact. Depending on what you need, psychological support, bereavement counselling or support from an appropriate association may also help.
And don’t underestimate practical support.
Let somebody make a meal. Let them drive you to an appointment. Ask them to sit beside you while you make a difficult telephone call or help you understand a French letter.
Support doesn’t always have to look like therapy.
Sometimes it is simply having another person beside you when everything feels too much.
English-Speaking Support in France
If you would prefer to talk to someone in English, SOS Help offers confidential and anonymous emotional support to English speakers in France. Their trained volunteer listeners are available every day from 3pm to 11pm on 01 46 21 46 46.
You do not have to be in crisis to call. People contact SOS Help about grief, loneliness, anxiety, low mood and the challenges of living away from their usual support network.
If the bereavement is connected to cancer, Cancer Support France may also be able to help. It provides English-speaking emotional, practical and linguistic support to people affected by cancer in France, including families and carers.
Dealing With a Death in France When You Don’t Speak Fluent French
For English-speaking residents in France, language can add another layer of difficulty.
You may suddenly find yourself trying to understand medical terminology, communicate with hospital staff, speak to a funeral director, contact your CPAM and deal with official French paperwork while grieving.
Ask people to slow down.
Ask them to repeat something.
Ask for information in writing.
If possible, have a trusted French speaker or someone familiar with the French healthcare system accompany you to important meetings or help you with telephone calls.
There is no embarrassment in saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
This is precisely the moment when you should ask for help.
Support After a Suicide in France
Bereavement following suicide can bring particularly complex emotions and questions, and specialist support is available.
France’s national suicide prevention service, 3114, is available free of charge throughout France, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The service is not only for someone experiencing suicidal thoughts. It also supports people who have been affected or bereaved by suicide, as well as people worried about somebody else.
If your own grief becomes overwhelming and you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, contact 3114. If there is an immediate medical emergency or danger to life, call 15 or 112.
You do not need to deal with that moment alone.
Planning Ahead: An Act of Kindness
There is one final conversation worth having — preferably long before any of this becomes necessary.
Do the people closest to you know what you would want?
Do they know who your GP is and which mutuelle you have?
Do they know where your Carte Vitale, insurance policies and important documents are kept?
Do they know whether you have funeral insurance, life insurance or prévoyance cover?
And, perhaps most importantly, do they know your wishes concerning your healthcare and end of life?
In France, you can prepare directives anticipées, which allow you to record your wishes concerning medical treatment at the end of life if one day you are unable to express them yourself.
You can also nominate a personne de confiance — someone you trust who can support you in relation to your healthcare and who can be consulted about your wishes if you become unable to express them.
Talking about death doesn’t make it happen.
But making your wishes known can remove an enormous burden from the people you love.
Hello Santé — In Closing
When someone dies in France, there are healthcare procedures, certificates, telephone calls, funeral arrangements and administrative tasks to deal with.
But behind every document is somebody who has just lost a person they love.
If this is happening to you now, don’t expect yourself to understand the entire French system in one day.
Start with the next necessary step.
Ask questions. Write things down. Accept practical help. And if the language, healthcare system or administration becomes overwhelming, find someone who can help you navigate it.
My work as a healthcare handholder is about making the French healthcare system feel less frightening and less complicated, particularly when language or unfamiliar procedures make a difficult situation even harder.
That support matters during illness.
It matters when someone is approaching the end of their life.
And it matters just as much for the people left behind.
