List of French people

Famous French or French-speaking/writing people

Andre Marie Ampère -- scientist

Guillaume Apollinaire -- poet

Honore de Balzac -- realist author

Charles Baudelaire -- 19th century poet

Simone de Beauvoir -- 20th century author

Jean-Charles de Borda -- mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor

François Boucher -- painter

John Calvin -- religious reformer, theologian

Albert Camus -- existentialist author

Paul Cezanne -- artist

Coco Chanel -- fashion designer

Emilie du Chatelet -- 18th century mathematician

Marquis de Condorcet -- philosopher, mathematician and political scientist

Pierre Corneille -- classicist playwright

Jacques Louis David -- painter

Claude Debussy -- Impressionist composer

Gérard Depardieu -- actor

René Descartes -- scientist and philosopher

Denis Diderot -- Enlightenment author

Alexander Dumas -- Author

Gustave Eiffel -- engineer

Pierre de Fermat -- mathematician

Gustave Flaubert -- realist author

Paul Gauguin - artist

Victor Hugo -- author

Pierre Gassendi - philosopher

Charles de Gaulle -- general and statesman

Jean Jaurès -- politician

Jeanne d'Arc -- (Joan of Arc) warrior, Saint.

Antoine Lavoisier -- scientist

Ninon de l'Enclos -- courtesan, patron of the arts

Claude Levi-Strauss -- anthropologist

Louis XIV -- King of France

Edouard Manet -- painter

Marie Antoinette - Austrian born Queen of France

Marie de France -- poet

Stephane Mallarme -- poet

Henri Matisse -- artist

Mistinguett -- Singer, dancer

François Mitterrand -- statesman

Claude Monet -- impressionist painter

Michel de Montaigne -- essayist

Molière -- 17th century comedic playwright and actor

Napoléon Bonaparte -- Emperor

Napoleon III -- Emperor

Blaise Pascal -- scientist, Christian philosopher and author

Louis Pasteur -- scientist

Edith Piaf -- singer

Christine de Pizan -- historian, pop philosopher

Henri Poincaré -- scientist

Marcel Proust -- author

Jean Phillippe Rameau -- composer

Jean Racine -- classicist playwright

Maurice Ravel -- composer

Pierre-Auguste Renoir -- painter

Arthur Rimbaud -- poet

Edmond Rostand -- neo-romantic playwright

Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- philosopher and writer

Marquis de Sade -- erotic author

Antoine de Saint-Exupery -- author

Camille Saint-Saens -- composer

George Sand -- feminist author

Jean-Paul Sartre -- existentialist philosopher

Stendhal -- author

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec -- artist

François Truffaut -- director

Paul Verlaine -- poet

Jules Verne -- author

Eugene Viollet-le-Duc -- architect

Voltaire -- Enlightenment author, deist/agnostic/atheist philosopher

Èmile Zola -- naturalist author

Not as Famous as They Deserve:

Paul Héroult -- inventor

Rene Dumont -- agronomist engineer and sociologist

Alain Lipietz -- economist

Erik Satie -- composer