Offering Condolences in France

Find the right words when someone loses a loved one, from the first message to the funeral and the weeks after.

In France a death is usually announced through an avis de décès in the local paper or online, with the date of the obsèques (funeral); many ceremonies are civil, at a crematorium or a funeral home, and anyone close to the family may come unless it says 'dans la plus stricte intimité' (family only). People sign a registre de condoléances, send a card, or club together for flowers or a donation to a charity named by the family. Keep it simple and sober: « Toutes mes condoléances » is always right, use vous with the family you barely know and tu with a close friend or colleague who already uses tu with you.