Filling in the boxes
Amount: You need to fill in the box on the right with the amount in numbers (in French the decimal is written as a comma and the period is used to separate thousands, so to express two euros and fifty cents you would write 2,50 and to express two thousand five hundred you would write 2.500). Then write the amount in words in the first space along the top of the cheque, after ‘Payez contre ce chèque non endossable'(see the list of numbers below).
à (location): Under the amount in numbers, there is a line after ‘á’, where you need to fill in the place where the cheque is being written.
le (date): Usually this goes under the location. Attention Americans, in France the date goes before the month, so 10/1/2012 would be read as the 10th of January.
à (payee): Usually this goes under the amount in letters. This is the payee, so write either the name of a person, company or public administration office that the cheque is payable to.
Signature: You know what to do.
In larger shops and supermarkets they have autofill machines so you will just need to sign the cheque and verify that the amount is correct.
French checks are valid for one year, one week and one day from the date of issue.
Writing figures in French
Finally here’s a handy list of numbers:
1 un
2 deux
3 trois
4 quatre
5 cinq
6 six
7 sept
8 huit
9 neuf
10 dix
11 Onze
12 douze
13 treize
14 quatorze
15 quinze
16 seize
17 dix-sept
18 dix-huit
19 dix-neuf
20 vingt
30 trente
40 quarante
41 quarante et un
50 cinquante
60 soixante
70, 71, 72… soixante-dix, soixante et onze, soixante et douze…
80, 81, 82… quatre-vingt, quatre-vingt-un, quatre-vingt-deux…
90, 91, 92 … quatre-vingt-dix , quatre-vingt-onze, quatre-vingt-douze…
100, 200, 300, … Cent, deux-cents, trois-cents…
1,000 , 10,000, 100,000 … mille , dix mille, cent mille…