Using what3words in France: A Lifesaver for Rural Expats?

The Power of 3: using what3words in France

What happens when you need to give your exact location in rural France, but your house doesn't have a standard street number, or you are stuck on an unmarked vineyard track?

Enter what3words—a location app built on a simple but clever idea: every 3-metre square on Earth has been assigned a unique, random combination of three specific words.

For example, the front door of 10 Downing Street in London is ///slurs.this.shark. The app is completely free to download on both iOS and Android, works globally, and is used by millions of people for everything from holiday home delivery drop-offs to emergency mountain rescues.

For anyone living in or travelling through France—especially in rural areas where addresses can be incredibly vague or entirely non-existent—it is an app well worth knowing about.

How it Works in France

The entirety of France is fully mapped by the app. Every single field, forest track, mountain path, and remote hamlet has its own unique three-word address.

Because the app relies on your phone's internal GPS to find your precise location, it works even in areas with no mobile data signal. This is an incredibly useful feature in the kind of remote valleys or woodland spots where you might actually need it most.

The Language Question (And Why It Will Catch You Out)

This is where things get interesting, and it is the exact point where many expats and holidaymakers get caught out.

The what3words system is available in over 60 languages, including French. However, the words are not direct translations of each other; they are entirely independent.

Example: The exact same 3-metre square spot that is ///filled.count.soap in English becomes ///conduite.richissime.empâter in French. They are completely different words describing the exact same physical location.

Why does this matter in an emergency?

If you have to call the French emergency services—the pompiers (18), SAMU (15), or the gendarmerie (17)—and read out three English words, it is highly likely to cause confusion. French emergency dispatchers are not going to be using the English version of the app.

The Fix: Set up a secondary language

Before you travel, open the app settings and set French as your secondary language.

This brilliant feature allows your screen to display both the English and French three-word addresses simultaneously. In an emergency, you simply read out the French version. You can also display addresses in German, Spanish, or Dutch—which is incredibly handy if you are hosting international guests at a French gîte or crossing European borders.

Weighing it Up: The Pros vs. Cons

While the app is highly innovative, it has divided opinions among navigation purists and emergency teams. Here is a balanced look at the benefits and the drawbacks of using it while living in France.

The Positives

• Remarkable precision: A 3-metre square is literally the difference between your front door and your neighbour's driveway. In a medical emergency or a vehicular breakdown, that level of accuracy saves lives.

• Works offline: The GPS tracking works perfectly without an active internet connection. You can find your current three-word address with zero signal (though you will need a phone signal to call or text it to someone).

• 100% Free: The app costs nothing to download or maintain.

• Total coverage: Unlike traditional French postal addresses, it functions flawlessly on beaches, down unmade tracks, and deep in the woods.

• Easy to say over the phone: Dictating three simple words is significantly easier than rattling off a long string of complicated GPS latitude and longitude coordinates to a dispatcher.

The Negatives

• Low official adoption in France: Unlike the UK, where the vast majority of emergency services actively use the system, French emergency networks have been much slower to officially integrate it into their control rooms. If a dispatcher doesn't know what it is, they have to manually look it up.

• The risk of mishearing: The system is intentionally designed so that similar-sounding words map to entirely different places on the globe to avoid local duplicates. However, a slight mishearing or a thick accent over a crackly phone line could theoretically pinpoint a location miles away.

• It is a proprietary system: The algorithm is private and copyrighted by a commercial company. Some tech experts express concern about relying entirely on a private business's infrastructure for safety-critical situations rather than open-source alternatives.

• Language ambiguity: Accidentally reading out an English word combination to a French operator could yield dangerously wrong results. It requires real presence of mind in high-stress situations.

The Ultimate Setup Guide for France

To make sure the tool works safely when you need it, make sure you take a quick minute to set it up correctly.

The Bottom Line

Is what3words perfect? No. Is it better than trying to describe a winding dirt track in the middle of the Aude by the colour of the nearest rusty tractor gate? Almost certainly yes.

The critics are entirely right that it shouldn't be treated as your sole piece of critical safety infrastructure. It should never replace standard geographical awareness. But as an additional layer of security—especially when used alongside a standard 112 European emergency call—it offers genuine, practical value.

Three words won't always save the day, but they might just help someone find you when it matters most.

– Jen x