A genealogy trip to France works best when it is built around three things: the archives, the village, and a little slack. This sample seven-day plan gives you a structure to adapt. It assumes you are flying into Paris and heading to a département elsewhere in France, and it is meant as a template, not a script.
Principles behind the plan
- Do the paper research first. The trip should confirm and enrich what you already know, not discover it. See our complete guide to tracing French ancestry.
- Write ahead to the mairie and the archives. Fix dates and learn the opening days.
- Build in buffer time. Offices close at odd hours, villages are slow to reach, and discoveries deserve an extra afternoon.
- Put the archives before the village. What you read in the registers tells you what to look for on the ground.
The seven days
| Day | Plan | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrive in Paris and rest | Use the evening to review your list of acts, places, and questions |
| 2 | Paris research day: the Archives de Paris or the Archives nationales, if your research needs them | Skip if your family has no Paris or national records. See the Archives nationales guide |
| 3 | Travel to the main town of the département | Settle in near the departmental archives and confirm opening hours |
| 4 | Departmental archives all day | Read the registers for your commune; photograph acts where allowed. See what to bring |
| 5 | The ancestral village: mairie, church, cemetery, and farm sites | Arrive by appointment; leave time for talking to locals. See visiting your ancestral village |
| 6 | Neighboring villages and local history society | Families often lived in nearby communes; cousins and records may be there |
| 7 | Buffer day, then return travel | Follow up leads, revisit the archives, or rest |
How to adapt it
- No Paris stop. If your ancestors have no Paris or national records, fly into the nearest regional airport or go by train and drop day 2.
- More than one village. Add a day for each commune, and group them by département to cut travel.
- A longer trip. Add a second archive day, or a day in a regional museum or library.
- Several families. Prioritize the line with the best records, and treat the others as bonuses.
- Travel with family. Alternate research days with sightseeing so that everyone enjoys the trip.
Before you leave
- Write to the mairie and the departmental archives and confirm days and times. See writing to a French mairie.
- Order or print copies of the key acts and your family tree.
- Check each reading room’s rules and registration process.
- Book accommodation near the archives and, separately, near the village if they differ.
- Plan transport: rural villages may need a car.
- Learn useful phrases. See French phrases for a genealogy trip.
What to expect on the ground
- Short, irregular hours. Small mairies may be open only a few half-days a week, and archives may close on certain days. Confirm in writing.
- Lunch closures. Many offices and shops close at midday.
- Slow reading. Registers take time, and handwriting is demanding. See our guide to reading old French records.
- Surprises. A grave may be gone, a house rebuilt, or a cousin found. Leave room for it.
After the trip
Transcribe your notes while they are fresh, file your photographs with source details, and send thank-you notes to everyone who helped. Update your tree, and check any new names against the records. If you found living relatives, a follow-up message can start a lasting connection.
Illustrative composite (not a real family): A couple from Georgia spend a night in Paris, then take a train to Besançon. They spend a full day in the Doubs archives reading the 1880s registers, then a day in the village of Mamirolle, where the mairie secretary has set aside the commune’s register and a local historian shows them the family’s old street. Their buffer day on day 7 is used to return to the archives for one record they had missed.
For where the trip fits in your wider research, see our French genealogy records hub and our guide to French regions.
A ten-day variant
| Days | Plan |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Paris: arrive, then one research day at the Archives de Paris or the Archives nationales |
| 3 | Travel to the département’s main town |
| 4–5 | Two days in the departmental archives, covering civil and parish registers |
| 6–7 | The ancestral village and the neighboring communes |
| 8 | A second village or a second family line |
| 9 | Local history society, museum, or library |
| 10 | Buffer day and return |
Budget and booking tips
- Archives and reader’s cards are free, so most costs are travel, lodging, and copies.
- Book lodging near the archives for the research days and near the village for the village days, if they differ.
- Rural transport is limited. Check train and bus options, and price a rental car for the village days.
- Reserve ahead in holiday periods, when small hotels and rentals fill up.
- Keep a daily log of what you saw, what you asked, and what to follow up.
Three itinerary mistakes to avoid
- Packing in too much. Archives and villages reward slow days, and a plan with three stops a day usually delivers none well.
- Skipping the archives. Visiting the village without first reading the registers means you arrive without the names, dates, and hamlets that make the visit meaningful.
- Ignoring opening hours. A beautiful plan collapses on a closed Monday or a public holiday, so confirm every stop in writing.
Resources for planning
For what survives in each département and which archives hold it, see the FamilySearch Research Wiki on France and the FranceArchives portal. Our guide to French regions helps you understand the area you are visiting, and a name index such as the one on MyHeritage can confirm dates before you go.
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