Famous people from France
Monarchs
Philip II Augustus (1165-1223), added the Counties of Artois, Valois, Amiens and most of Vermandois to the Royal domain, joined the 3rd crusade.
Louis IX (1214-1270), crusader and Catholic saint.
Philip IV "The Fair" (1268-1314), waged war with Flanders, added Lille and Douai to the Royal domain, and suppressed the order of the Knights Templar.
Francis I (1494-1547), first Renaissance King of France, the Father and Restorer of Letters
Henry IV (1553-1610), enacted the Edict of Nantes which guaranteed religious liberties to the Protestants.
Louis XIV (1638-1715), known as The Sun King, had the longest reign of any major European monarch, increased the power and influence of France in Europe, and gave his name to Louisiana.
Louis XV (1710-1774), ruled over one of the most prosperous age for France, but lost the colonies of India, Canada and most of Louisiana to Britain.
Louis XVI (1754-1793), last absolute King of France, was decapitated during the French Revolution.
Napoleon I (1769-1823), first Emperor of the French, exported the ideas of the French Revolution throughout Europe,
Napoleon III (1808-1873), expanded the French colonial empire and supervised the industrial revolution.
Politicians
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838), diplomat under Louis XVI, Napoleon I, Louis XVIII and Louis-Philippe.
Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), WWI statesman and major player in the Treaty of Versailles
Henri Philippe Pétain (1856-1951), WWI hero, marshal of France, leader of Vichy France during WWII and collaborator with the Nazi regime.
Jean Jaurès (1859-1914), socialist politician and pacifist.
Aristide Briand (1862-1932), Prime Minister of France and Nobel Peace Prize in 1925.
Jean Monnet (1888-1979), architect of European Unity.
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), French military leader during WWII and French president from 1959 to 1969.
François Mitterrand (1916-1996), president of France from 1981 to 1995.
Jacques Delors (1925-), President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995.
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1926-), president of France from 1974 to 1981.
Jacques Chirac (1932-), president of France from 1995 to 2007.
Authors, Playwrights & Poets
François Rabelais (1494-1553)
Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585)
Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695)
Molière (1622-1673)
Marquise de Sévigné (1626-1696)
Charles Perrault (1628-1703), author of numerous fairy tales, such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss-in-Boots or Bluebeard.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1629-1655)
Jean Racine (1639-1699)
Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-1799)
Marquis de Sade (1740-1814)
François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848)
Stendhal (1783-1842)
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869)
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1950)
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), author of The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and The Man in the Iron Mask.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885), author of Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris
George Sand (1804-1876)
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), author of Madame Bovary
Jules Verne (1828-1905), author of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days
Émile Zola (1840-1902)
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898)
Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)
Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)
Paul Claudel (1868-1955)
André Gide (1869-1951), Nobel Prize in literature in 1947.
Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
François Mauriac (1885-1970)
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974)
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), author of The Little Prince
Jacques Prévert (1900-1977)
André Malraux (1901-1973)
Albert Camus (1913-1960), Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.
Philosophers & Thinkers
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Renaissance essayist and philosopher.
René Descartes (1596-1650), dubbed the Father of Modern Mathematics and Founder of Modern Philosophy
Montesquieu (1689-1755), social commentator and political thinker
Voltaire (1694-1778), Enlightenment writer and defender of civil liberties
Denis Diderot (1713-1784), philosopher & editor-in-chief of the Encyclopédie
Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783), mathematician, mechanician, physicist and philosopher.
Condorcet (1743-1794), philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
Michel Foucault (1926-1984)
Michel Serres (1930-)
Bernard-Henri Lévy (1948-)
André Comte-Sponville (1952-)
Inventors & Scientists
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher.
Buffon (1707-1788), , mathematician, biologist, cosmologist and author
Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794), father of modern chemistry
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829), naturalist and an early proponent of the theory of evolution.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), microbiologist and chemist, confirmed the germ theory of disease, created the first vaccine for rabies.
Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor
Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997), naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, scientist, photographer and researcher/li>
Painters
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (1755-1842)
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Édouard Manet (1832-1883)
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
Claude Monet (1840-1906)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Composers
François Couperin (1668-1733)
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Georges Bizet (1838-1975)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Musicians & Singers
Édith Piaf (1915-1963)
Georges Brassens (1921-1981)
Charles Aznavour (1924-)
Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991)
Claude François (1939-1978)
Johnny Hallyday (1943-)
Mireille Mathieu (1946-)
France Gall (1947-)
Jean-Jacques Goldman (1951-)
Mylène Farmer (1961-)
Vanessa Paradis (1972-)
Actors, Actresses & Filmmakers
Jean Gabin (1904-1976), actor and war hero.
Jean Marais (1913-1998), actor.
Louis de Funès (1914-1983), comic actor.
Yves Montand (1921-1991), actor.
Michel Galabru (1924-), actor.
Jeanne Moreau (1928-), actress and film director.
Jean-Luc Godard (1930-), filmmaker and one of the most influential members of the "French New Wave".
Jean Rochefort (1930-), actor.
François Truffaut (1932-1984), filmmaker, screenwriter, director, producer and actor.
Jean-Paul Belmondo (1933-), actor.
Pierre Richard (1934-), comic actor and film director.
Brigitte Bardot (1934-), actress, former fashion model, nationalist, singer, animal rights activist.
Alain Delon (1935-), actor
Claude Lelouch (1937-), film director, writer and producer.
Catherine Deneuve (1943-), actress.
Gérard Depardieu (1948-), actor.
Jean Reno (1948-), actor.
Daniel Auteuil (1950-), actor.
Gérard Jugnot (1951-), actor.
Thierry Lhermitte (1952-), actor.
Christian Clavier (1952-), actor.
Isabelle Adjani (1955-), actress.
Emmanuelle Béart (1963-), actress.
Juliette Binoche (1964-)
Valérie Lemercier (1964-), actress and filmmaker.
Sophie Marceau (1966-), actress.
Audrey Tautou (1978-), actress.
Eva Green (1980-), actress.
Chefs
Marie-Antoine Carême (1784-1833), principal originator of the Haute Cuisine
Paul Bocuse (1926-)
Joël Robuchon (1945-)
Raymond Blanc (1949-)
Alain Ducasse (1956-)
Pierre Gagnaire
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