What does 'bis" mean in French addresses?
 

I have run into several addresses which go something like 29 bis rue Monge. My Fr-Eng dictionary has bis meaning brown which I know is out. Another definition is twice, again, repeat, ditto, encore. So is bis just like 29 1/2 in America? Thanks again you knowledgeable bunch.

I Think! it means business. The French differentiate between business and home addresses and one of them is defined by being a red colour or something like that.

"Bis" is like the address 29A right next to 29.

There's also a "ter" like 29B and very rarely a "quater" like 29C.

Hi!

"bis" means "encore" and it's what the concert audience shouts when they want one.

In addresses it means a second house/shop etc of the same number as another one. So a second No 12 in a particular street calls itself 12a in English and 12 bis in French (pronounced "douze biss").

Harzer

<<So is bis just like 29 1/2 in America?>>

I would have answered this question "yes".

Best wishes,

Rex

if it's an address, indy travel has it right.

It has nothing to do with business versus residential - it means 29A or 29 1/2 - IN BETWEEN 29 and 30, like when they squeezed a new address in between two older existing ones.

In practicality I have found that "bis" in an address means that the entrance is a door to a larger establishment within the building. And, yes, more than one door is squeezed in the space of the primary address.

For example, we stayed at a hotel in the 6th Arr that had a bis address. The exact name and address were:

Acacias St Germain Hotel
"151, Bis Rue De Rennes"
Paris

When we got there, the double door of the hotel opened into a moderately long hallway which led us to the reception area desk deeper in the building.

The street frontage area for the hotel was the width of the double doorway.
Fortunately it had a canopy over it with the single word "Hotel" on it. Otherwise it was hard to spot.

Fortunately a much more visible landmark was 72 and a half paces away: La Brioche Doree. At least it was visible during the day. La Brioche was great for sandwiches and pastry type goodies and breakfast buns and yogurt.

In an address, it means as others have said: an apartment indication (2A) or a "second" or "halfway" between two numbers. In old neighborhoods, they may try to squeeze in another building of living unit, where none had been before.

"Bis" is a Latin word, it litterally means "twice". You find it in the roots of a lot of english vocabulary terms like for instance "bisexual". It is still used also in Italian (and I think probably also in Spanish and Portuguese), and it can be used the same way as in french: For adresses numbers (like 29 A in the US), or as a request for a second round of a meal, a drink, or just a musical or acting performance.