France is a party to the New York Convention since 26 June 1959, when the Convention was ratified.
Article 1516, paragraph 2 of the French Code of Civil Procedure provides that "Exequatur proceedings shall not be adversarial."
Paragraph 3 of the Same Article specifies that "Application for exequatur shall be filed by the most diligent party with the Court Registrar" of the Court of Paris.
In practice, the application for exequatur consists of a few hand-written lines through which a party asks the judge to enforce a foreign award.
Such an application is filed "together with the original award and arbitration agreement, or duly authenticated copies of such documents." (Article 1506, paragraph 3 of the French Code of Civil Procedure).
The Court will issue the enforcement order within approximately fifteen (15) days.
The same procedural frame as above applies in case that a foreign award is opposed.
Article 1525 paragraph 1 of the French Code of Civil Procedure provides that "An order granting or denying recognition or enforcement of an arbitral award made abroad may be appealed."
From a procedural point of view, "The appeal shall be brought within one month following service (signification) of the order" (Article 1525 paragraph 2 of the French Code of Civil Procedure).
The appeal will be heald before the Paris Court of Appeal, where proceedings usually last around 18 months.
In any event, Article 1526 paragraph 1 of the French Code of Civil Procedure provides "Neither an action to set aside an award nor an appeal against an enforcement order shall suspend enforcement of an award."
There are no court fees. Lawyers' fees will vary from a law firm to another. Translation fees could be needed and would depend on the length of the document to be translated.
Approximately, for a simple straightforward exequatur, the cost could be evaluated to USD 6,000.