French OSINT sources, from national to department

Any French company or association by name, officer or SIREN number, with its establishments, officers and filed documents. The official entry point that replaced paid search.

The national business register in direct access : deeds, articles, beneficial owners and annual accounts, downloadable free of charge since 2020.

The service of the commercial court registries. Useful for the history of filings and insolvency proceedings, where the official directory gives the present state.

Civil and commercial notices day by day : incorporations, transfers, business sales, insolvency proceedings. This is where a company's trouble surfaces before it is known elsewhere.

Trademarks, patents and designs filed in France. A trademark filing often reveals a project before it is announced, with its date and the filing party.

The national open data platform, which also hosts datasets from local authorities. Searching by organisation lets you reach what a department or a town publishes.

Comparable indicators by town, department and region. Useful for placing a local figure, which means nothing without its territorial reference.

The Sirene register of companies and establishments, and population data. Sirene is the source most private company directories derive from.

Laws, decrees, collective agreements and case law. The least used part in investigation is the case law, which names the parties and sets out the facts found.

The authoritative official text, with appointments, honours and individual decisions published nowhere else.

Creation, amendment and dissolution of associations, with the declared registered office and purpose. The national register of associations adds the declared officers.

Declarations of interests and assets by public officials, and the register of interest representatives. The most direct source for linking an elected official to a private activity.

Campaign and political party accounts, with declared amounts and loans. The commission's decisions set out the irregularities found.

The financial markets regulator : named sanction decisions, shareholding threshold crossings, and the blacklist of unauthorised operators.

The national register of persons and entities whose assets are frozen in France. To be checked before concluding anything about a person named in a sanctions matter.

Public procurement notices and award notices. An award names the successful bidder and the amount, linking a company to an authority with a date.

Reports by the Court and the regional chambers on the management of local authorities and public bodies. A regional chamber report is often the most precise document that exists about a local authority.

Official public reports, including those that are not announced. An inspection report quoted in the press is often found there in full text.

The official cadastral plan, parcel by parcel. It gives the geometry and reference of a parcel, never the owner's name, which is not public in France.

Local planning schemes, easements and zoning, town by town. A construction project appears in the zoning before it is visible on the ground.

Risks and pollution by address : industrial sites, contaminated land, regulated installations. The regulated installations database names the operator and the authorised activity.

The actual price of property transactions over the past five years, parcel by parcel. The amounts come from the deeds, not from estimates.

Official mapping and aerial photography, including historical campaigns. Comparing two campaigns dates a development to within a year.

The digital library of the French national library, including digitised regional daily press. Often the only way to recover an old local fact, by name.

The State's holdings. For a local investigation the departmental archives are almost always the right level, since the national archives keep only what belongs to central government.

The portal that lists French archive services and allows searching their finding aids. It is how you locate the address and holdings of a departmental service.