AFNIC have announced that as of November 27, 2007, they publish newly registered domain names in their Whois directory upon registration. As well, name server updates now occur five times per day. To see the AFNIC announcement, see below.

The AFNIC sets up a 24/7 registration system for .fr domain names
Since November 27th 2007, .fr domain names are directly published in the AFNIC’s Whois directory (www.afnic.fr/outils/whois), at the moment of their creation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

At the same time, the AFNIC has strongly increased the frequency of its name server updates. They are now updated up to five times per day, 7 days per week. This allows an effective activation of domain names in very short times.

This process is monitored around the clock by dedicated teams that have made sure no blocking incident occured since the implementation of these evolutions.

The AFNIC is happy to have this new registration system that now allows anyone, individuals as well as corporate entities, to register and activate their .fr domain name at any time, day or night!

This announcement was sourced from www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/general/NN20080205_en
and is also available in French from www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/general/NN20080205_fr

To register your .fr domain name, check out Europe Registry here.