Section 3: Funeral operations

The staff of funeral directors, undertakers or associations and their establishments authorised in accordance with Article L. 2223-23 mandated by any person who is entitled to provide for the funeral, have access to funeral chambers for the deposit and removal of bodies and the practice of the conservation treatments mentioned in 3° of article L. 2223-19 and funeral grooming.

Admission to the funeral home takes place within forty-eight hours of the death. It takes place at the written request: – either from any person who is entitled to provide for the funeral and provides proof of his or her civil status and domicile; – or from the person in whose home the death occurred, provided that he or she certifies in writing that it has been impossible for him…

When death has occurred on the public highway or in a place open to the public, admission of the body to a funeral home is requested by the police or gendarmerie authorities. A doctor is assigned to ascertain beforehand the reality and cause of death. In the cases provided for in article 81 of the Civil Code and in article 74 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the admission of…

Without prejudice to the foregoing provisions, the body of a deceased person may not be admitted to a funeral home, located outside the territory of the commune of the place of death, without the declaration of transport made to the mayor of the commune of the place of death. However, this declaration is not required when the transport is requested by the police or gendarmerie authorities, provided that they report…

When the transfer to a funeral home of the body of a person who has died in a public or private health establishment, which does not fall into the category of those required to have a mortuary in accordance with article L. 2223-39, has been carried out at the request of the director of the establishment, the costs resulting from transport to the funeral home shall be borne by the…

All funeral chambers are laid out in such a way as to ensure a separation between the area intended for receiving the public, comprising one or more display rooms, and the technical area intended for the preparation of the bodies. Access to the funeral chamber for bodies before committal or the coffin is via the technical area out of sight. The rooms in the technical area communicate with each other…

The display room is protected from the view of neighbours or outsiders by the use of non-transparent glazing or, where appropriate, any other permanent visual obscuring mechanism. The fixed partitions of the display rooms provide acoustic insulation of at least 38 decibels (A) with regard to internal airborne noise and 30 decibels (A) with regard to external airborne noise when the funeral home is located close to a road, railway…

The funeral home must have refrigeration equipment that allows the body to be displayed and that can be used in each display room. The latter are equipped with ventilation ensuring an air renewal of at least one volume per hour during the display of the body.

The technical area comprises at least as many refrigerated compartments as there are display rooms. Each refrigerated compartment enables a temperature of between 0° and 5° C to be maintained at all times while the body is being deposited. However, some refrigerated cases can be programmed to reach sub-zero temperatures, for forensic reasons.

The technical area includes a preparation room with a usable floor area of at least 12 square metres, equipped with a washable and disinfectable preparation table accessible from at least three sides, including both lengths, a non-manually operated sink or basin and a disinfection device for treatment instruments. The floor covering, drain traps, furniture legs and skirting boards are capable of being disinfected intensively without alteration. The ventilation system in…