Rights of passage
If your land is enclosed and you don’t have sufficient access to a public road, your neighbour must allow you a right of passage (droit de désenclavement). It is up to the closed-in party to ask for this and agree with the owner on the terms – times, vehicles and people authorised. There is no time limit for this – you can ask for it even after 20 years. Any expenses will be yours unless the neighbour is also using the passage, in which case they would be shared. You can then make an amicable agreement or have it formalised with a notaire.
If the neighbour refuses passage you should take your case to the Tribunal d’Instance. Usually the shortest route between the properties will be chosen unless this is prejudicial to the neighbour, in which case the judge will appoint an expert to decide the route. Should your land later become accessible to a public road then, if the neighbour asks, the right of passage can be cancelled.
If you want to bring water to your property and can only do this by digging channels across your neighbour’s land, you must ask him for a servitude d’aqueduc. If he refuses, you should go before the Tribunal d’Instance.

Ladder rights
Sometimes you may need access to a neighbour’s land to carry out maintenance or improvements to your property, which means erecting scaffolding or ladders and perhaps disrupting his garden. First, try to obtain an amicable written agreement defining the hours of work, the time-scale, measures to be taken to avoid damage and the area of land to be accessed. It’s advisable to engage a huissier (at your own cost) as a witness before and after the work, in case of later litigation in the event of damage. If the neighbour is uncooperative, the Tribunal de Grande Instance will grant you the right of passage (le droit du tour d’échelle) if the work is deemed necessary and urgent. The standard letter to use in case of a neighbour’s refusal is on the very useful website at
www.maison-facile.com/modele-lettre/061-lettre.asp?num=1614

Other land rights
You want to pass through your neighbour’s garden
Whether as a shortcut to take your kids to school, or to walk to a nearby river, you must have his written or verbal agreement. To make this a permanent right of passage, have a droit de passage conventionnel drawn up by a notaire and published at the Conservation des Hypothèques, or the Land Registry.
The right of passage will then be transferred with the property to the next owner.

Your property is on a river
You must by law allow the public to use a pathway along the river bank. If the river is navigable, you must leave a towpath of 7.80 metres wide, and if you are next to a lake, you must leave a free area, called a marchepied, of 3.35 metres wide around it.