text:
List of French people

French people of note include:

A–C

 * Carole Achache
 * Isabelle Adjani
 * Renée Adorée
 * Anouk Aimée
 * Flo Ankah
 * Arletty
 * Antonin Artaud
 * Fanny Ardant
 * Jeanne Aubert
 * Jean-Louis Aubert
 * Jean-Pierre Aumont
 * Claude Autant-Lara
 * Daniel Auteuil
 * Charles Aznavour
 * Brigitte Bardot
 * Emmanuelle Béart
 * Loleh Bellon
 * Jean-Paul Belmondo
 * François Berléand
 * Charles Berling
 * Adam Bessa
 * Suzanne Bianchetti
 * Juliette Binoche
 * Bernard Blier
 * Sandrine Bonnaire
 * Élodie Bouchez
 * Bourvil
 * Dany Boon
 * Angelique Boyer
 * Charles Boyer
 * Guillaume Canet
 * Capucine
 * Martine Carol
 * Leslie Caron
 * Isabelle Carré
 * Vincent Cassel
 * Jean-Pierre Cassel
 * Laetitia Casta
 * Robert Clary
 * Grégoire Colin
 * Marion Cotillard
 * Clotilde Courau
 * Darry Cowl

D–L

 * Béatrice Dalle
 * Lili Damita
 * Danielle Darrieux
 * Alain Delon
 * Danièle Delorme
 * Julie Delpy
 * Catherine Deneuve
 * Élisabeth Depardieu
 * Gérard Depardieu
 * Guillaume Depardieu
 * Patrick Dewaere
 * Arielle Dombasle
 * Michel Drucker
 * Morgane Dubled
 * Jean Dujardin
 * Anny Dupérey
 * Romain Duris
 * Nicolas Duvauchelle
 * Fernandel
 * Brigitte Fossey
 * Louis de Funès
 * Félicité Du Jeu
 * Jean Gabin
 * Julie Gayet
 * Annie Girardot
 * Judith Godrèche
 * Eva Green
 * Sacha Guitry
 * Isabelle Huppert
 * Irène Jacob
 * Claude Jade
 * Marlène Jobert
 * Valérie Kaprisky
 * Louise Labèque
 * Mélanie Laurent
 * Jean-Pierre Léaud
 * Virginie Ledoyen
 * Noémie Lenoir
 * Max Linder
 * Sheryfa Luna

M–Z

 * Marcel Marceau
 * Sophie Marceau
 * Jean Marais
 * Jean-Pierre Marielle
 * Ali Marhyar
 * Olivier Martinez
 * Jean-Baptiste Maunier
 * Bernard Minet
 * Miou-Miou
 * Mistinguett
 * Yves Montand
 * Jeanne Moreau
 * Michèle Morgan
 * Musidora
 * Pierre Niney
 * Gérard Philipe
 * Michel Piccoli
 * Clémence Poésy
 * Alexia Portal
 * Yvonne Printemps
 * Marguerite Priola, stage name of Marguerite–Marie–Sophie Polliart
 * Pérette Pradier
 * Jérôme Pradon
 * Rachel, pseudonym for Elisa-Rachel Félix
 * Gabrielle Réjane
 * Jean Reno
 * Marine Renoir
 * Pierre Richard
 * Sebastian Roché
 * Jean Rochefort
 * Béatrice Romand
 * Philippine de Rothschild
 * Nathalie Roussel
 * Michel Roux
 * Emmanuelle Seigner
 * David Serero
 * Léa Seydoux
 * Delphine Seyrig
 * Simone Signoret
 * Audrey Tautou
 * Jean-Louis Trintignant
 * Marie Trintignant
 * Gaspard Ulliel
 * Michael Vartan
 * Hervé Villechaize
 * Mallory Wanecque
 * Lambert Wilson

Architects

 * Jacques-François Blondel
 * Germain Boffrand
 * Étienne-Louis Boullée
 * Salomon de Brosse
 * Libéral Bruant
 * Androuet du Cerceau family
 * Le Corbusier pseudonym for Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Swiss-born)
 * Philibert de l'Orme
 * Gustave Eiffel
 * Pierre François Léonard Fontaine
 * Ange-Jacques Gabriel
 * Charles Garnier
 * Tony Garnier
 * Hector Guimard
 * Villard de Honnecourt
 * Pierre Jeanneret (Swiss-born)
 * Henri Labrouste
 * Claude Nicolas Ledoux
 * Pierre Lescot
 * André Lurçat
 * Robert Mallet-Stevens
 * François Mansart
 * Jules Hardouin Mansart
 * Louis Métezeau
 * Michel Mimran (born 1954)
 * Jean Nouvel
 * Charles Percier
 * Claude Perrault
 * Dominique Perrault
 * Auguste Perret
 * Christian de Portzamparc
 * Jean Prouvé
 * Alain Provost
 * Henri Sauvage
 * Jacques-Germain Soufflot
 * Louis Le Vau
 * Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

Photographers

 * Carole Achache
 * Yann Arthus-Bertrand
 * Brassaï born in Hungary
 * Henri Cartier-Bresson
 * Raymond Depardon
 * Robert Doisneau
 * Pierre Dubreuil
 * Jules Gervais-Courtellemont
 * Nadar
 * Willy Ronis

Sculptors

 * Frédéric Bartholdi
 * Antoine Bourdelle
 * Antonin Carlès
 * Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
 * César
 * Antoine-Denis Chaudet
 * Camille Claudel
 * Paul Dubois
 * Raymond Duchamp-Villon
 * Alexandre Falguière
 * Jean-Antoine Houdon
 * René Iché
 * Antonin Idrac
 * Antonin Mercié
 * Hippolyte Moulin
 * Émile Louis Picault
 * Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
 * Antoine-Augustin Préault
 * Auguste Rodin
 * René Rozet
 * François Rude
 * Niki de Saint Phalle
 * Sacha Sosno
 * Marie-Renée Ucciani

A–J

 * André the Giant, professional wrestler
 * Tareq Abdesselem, Karateka
 * Sarah Abitbol, pairs figure skater (with Stéphane Bernadis); World Figure Skating Championship bronze
 * Tariq Abdul-Wahad (born Olivier Saint-Jean), basketball player
 * Luc Alphand, Alpine skier
 * Jacques Anquetil, cyclist
 * Jonathan Assous, France/Israel, defensive midfielder (Beitar Ramat Gan)
 * Fabien Barthez, football player and racing driver
 * Elliot Benchetrit, tennis player
 * Brice Blanc, jockey
 * Marion Bartoli, tennis player
 * Fabrice Benichou, world-champion super bantamweight boxer
 * Stéphane Bernadis, pairs figure skater (with Sarah Abitbol)
 * Alain Bernard, Olympic swimmer
 * Serge Betsen, Cameroon-born French citizen, rugby player
 * Serge Blanco, Venezuela-born French citizen, rugby player
 * Jean Bloch, Olympic silver football player
 * Louison Bobet, cyclist
 * Surya Bonaly, figure skater
 * Sébastien Bourdais, Indycar driver
 * Frédéric Bourdillon (born 1991), French-Israeli basketball player in the Israel Basketball Premier League
 * Andrée Brunet and Pierre Brunet, 1928 and 1932 Olympic skating gold medalists
 * Jean-Luc Cairon (born 1962), gymnast and coach
 * Alain Calmat, figure skater, Olympic silver, world championship gold, silver, two-time bronze
 * Philippe Candeloro, figure skater
 * Eric Cantona, football player
 * Georges Carpentier, world-champion boxer
 * Marcel Cerdan, world-champion boxer
 * François Cevert (born François Goldenberg), Formula One driver
 * Eugène Christophe, cyclist
 * Albert Clément (c. 1878–1907), motor racing driver
 * Robert Cohen, world-champion bantamweight boxer
 * Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, tennis player
 * Eugène Criqui, world-champion boxer
 * Jean Cruguet, jockey of Seattle Slew
 * Richard Dacoury, basketball player
 * Pierre Darmon, tennis player, highest world ranking # 8
 * André Darrigade, cyclist
 * Mathieu Debuchy, football player
 * Émile Delahaye, race car pioneer
 * Marcel Desailly, Ghana-born French citizen, football player
 * Abou Diaby, football player
 * Boris Diaw, basketball player
 * David Douillet, judoka
 * Yves Dreyfus, épée fencer, Olympic bronze medal, French champion
 * Isabelle Duchesnay and Paul Duchesnay, ice dancers
 * Alojzy Ehrlich, Poland, table tennis, 3x won silver and 1x won bronze in the World Championships, incarcerated by the Nazis in Auschwitz, represented France after 1945.
 * Andre Ethier, Major League Baseball outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers
 * Patrice Evra, football player for Monaco and Manchester United
 * André Fabre, horse trainer
 * Evan Fournier, basketball player
 * Laurent Fignon, cyclist
 * Jeremy Flores, surfer
 * Just Fontaine, football player
 * Jacques Fouroux, rugby union player and coach
 * Jessica Fox (born 1994), French-born Australian, slalom canoer, Olympic silver (K-1 slalom), world championships bronze (C-1)
 * Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, slalom canoer, Olympic bronze (K-1 slalom), five golds at ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships (two-time K-1, three-time K-1 team)
 * Pierre Galle, basketball player and coach
 * Pierre Gasly, racing driver currently competing in Formula One with Alpine F1 Team
 * Camille du Gast, race car driver
 * Lucien Gaudin, fencer
 * Fabien Gilot, Olympic and world champion swimmer
 * Yoann Gourcuff, football player
 * Stéphane Haccoun, boxer
 * Rudy Haddad, soccer midfielder (Hapoel Ashkelon & U21 national team)
 * Alphonse Halimi ("la Petite Terreur"), world-champion bantamweight boxer
 * Marlène Harnois (born 1986), taekwondo practitioner
 * Thierry Henry, football player
 * Bernard Hinault, cyclist
 * Jaylen Hoard (born 1999), French-American basketball player for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
 * Pierre Houseaux, triathlete
 * Cristobal Huet, hockey player
 * Constant Huret, cyclist
 * Olivier Jacque, motorcycle rider
 * Rene Jacquot, boxer, underdog who became world champion
 * Laurent Jalabert, cyclist
 * Max Jean, Formula One driver
 * Brian Joubert, figure skater
 * Natan Jurkovitz (born 1995), French-Swiss-Israeli basketball player for Hapoel Be'er Sheva of the Israeli Basketball Premier League

K–Z

 * Tidjan Keita (born 1996), French-Guinean basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
 * Jean-Claude Killy (born 1943), skier
 * Raymond Kopa, football player
 * Pascal Lavanchy, ice dancer (with Sophie Moniotte)
 * Suzanne Lenglen, tennis player
 * Alexander Lévy (born 1990), American-born professional golfer
 * Alexandre Lippmann (1881–1960), épée fencer, two-time Olympic champion, two-time silver, bronze
 * Bixente Lizarazu, football player
 * Sébastien Loeb (born 1974), rally driver and five-time champion
 * Jeannie Longo, cyclist
 * Mickaël Madar (born 1968), footballer
 * André Mahé, cyclist
 * Claude Makélélé, football player
 * Laure Manaudou, swimmer
 * Amélie Mauresmo, tennis player
 * Kylian Mbappé, football player
 * Jacques Mayol, freediver
 * Jose Meiffret, cyclist
 * Éric Millot, figure skater
 * Alain Mimoun, athlete
 * Sophie Moniotte, ice dancer (with Pascal Lavanchy)
 * Carole Montillet, skier
 * Armand Mouyal (1925–1988), épée fencer, Olympic bronze, world champion
 * Moustapha N'Diaye (born 1984), basketball player
 * Alfred "Artem" Nakache (1915–1983), swimmer, world record (200 m breaststroke), one-third of French two-time world record (3x100 relay team)
 * Claude Netter (1924–2007), foil fencer, Olympic champion, silver
 * Hellé Nice, pioneer female race car driver
 * Joakim Noah, NBA basketball player (Chicago Bulls)
 * Yannick Noah, tennis player
 * Jacques Ochs (1883–1971), French-born Belgian artist and Olympic fencing champion
 * Esteban Ocon, Formula One driver
 * Micheline Ostermeyer, Olympic champion in discus and shot put, bronze in high jump
 * Frédéric Ouvret (born 1970), former professional footballer
 * Simon Pagenaud, Indy car driver
 * Tony Parker, Belgian-born French citizen, basketball player
 * Gwendal Peizerat, ice dancer
 * Marie-José Pérec, athlete
 * Mary Pierce, Canadian-born French citizen, tennis player
 * Stéphane Peterhansel, car and motor racer, nine-time Dakar Rally winner
 * Julien Pillet, fencer
 * Michel Platini, football player
 * Alain Prost, Formula One driver and four-time champion
 * Antoine Rigaudeau, basketball player
 * Arthur Rozenfeld (born 1995), basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
 * François Rozenthal (born 1975), ice hockey player
 * Maurice Rozenthal (born 1975), ice hockey player
 * Georges Stern (1882–1928), jockey
 * Jean Stern (1875–1962), épée fencer, Olympic champion
 * Léon Théry, race car driver
 * Marcel Thil, world-champion boxer
 * Christophe Tiozzo, world-champion boxer; brother of Fabrice Tiozzo
 * Fabrice Tiozzo, world-champion boxer; brother of Christophe Tiozzo
 * David Trezeguet, football player
 * Tristan Vautier, Indy car driver
 * Patrick Vieira, Senegal-born French citizen, football player
 * Richard Virenque, Morocco-born French citizen, cyclist
 * Roger Walkowiak, cyclist
 * Jean-Pierre Wimille, race car driver
 * Albert Wolff (1906–1989), French-born American Olympic fencer
 * Zinedine Zidane, football player

A–E

 * David Abbasi
 * Carole Achache
 * Marcel Achard
 * Alain-Fournier
 * Mathilde Alanic, novelist, short story writer
 * Olivier Ameisen
 * Alix André, romance novelist
 * Jean Anouilh, 20th-century dramatist
 * Guillaume Apollinaire
 * Louis Aragon
 * Marie Célestine Amélie d'Armaillé, writer, biographer, and historian
 * Antonin Artaud
 * Marcel Aymé
 * Jean-Louis Baghio'o
 * Honoré de Balzac, realist author
 * Henri Barbusse
 * Charles Baudelaire, 19th-century poet
 * Pierre Beaumarchais, comedy playwright
 * Simone de Beauvoir, 20th-century author
 * Dany Bébel-Gisler
 * Cyrano de Bergerac
 * Jean Bernabé
 * Georges Bernanos
 * Tristan Bernard
 * Maurice Blanchot
 * Stella Blandy
 * Antoine Blondin
 * Nicolas Boileau
 * Lucie Boissonnas, 19th-century author
 * Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
 * Pierre Boulle
 * Fernand Braudel
 * André Breton
 * Retif de la Bretonne
 * Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
 * Michel Butor
 * Albert Camus, existentialist author
 * Marie-Magdeleine Carbet
 * Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 20th-century author
 * Blaise Cendrars
 * Aimé Césaire, 20th-century poet
 * Nicolas Chamfort
 * Patrick Chamoiseau
 * René Char, 20th-century poet
 * Victorine Chastenay
 * François-René de Chateaubriand
 * Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
 * Emil Cioran
 * Fanny Clar, journalist and author
 * Paul Claudel
 * Jean Cocteau, 20th-century poet and playwright
 * Colette, 20th-century author
 * Henri Collomb, psychiatrist
 * Joséphine Colomb, 19th-century children's writer
 * Maryse Condé
 * Raphaël Confiant
 * Benjamin Constant
 * Tristan Corbière
 * Pierre Corneille, classicist playwright
 * Marquis de Custine, travel writer
 * Jean-Marie Dallet
 * Joseph Dallois
 * Myriam David, psychoanalyst
 * Jeanine Delpech, journalist, translator, novelist
 * Robert Desnos, 20th-century poet
 * Gisèle d'Estoc, writer, sculptor, and feminist
 * Charles Dezobry, historian and historical novelist
 * Denis Diderot
 * Clotilde Dissard, journalist and feminist
 * Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, novelist
 * Alexandre Dumas, père, author
 * Alexandre Dumas, fils, playwright/author
 * Marguerite Duras, 20th-century novelist
 * Vanessa Duriès
 * Paul Éluard
 * Salvat Etchart

F–O

 * Frantz Fanon, 20th-century author, psychiatrist
 * Léon-Paul Fargue
 * Georges Feydeau
 * Marc Ferro
 * Amanda Filipacchi, novelist (French and U.S. citizenship, writes in English)
 * Alain Finkielkraut, essayist
 * Gustave Flaubert, realist author
 * Anatole France
 * Marie de France, poet
 * Romain Gary
 * Jean Genet
 * André Gide, Nobel Prize winner
 * Jean Giono
 * Jean Giraudoux
 * Françoise Giroud
 * Édouard Glissant
 * Edmond de Goncourt, writer, critic, and founder of the Académie Goncourt
 * Julien Gracq
 * Julien Green
 * Pierre Guyotat
 * Nahema Hanafi, historian
 * Jean-Edern Hallier
 * Juliette Heuzey, novelist, biographer
 * Auguste Himly, historian
 * Victor Hugo, novelist, poet, and playwright
 * Joris-Karl Huysmans
 * Eugène Ionesco
 * Martine L. Jacquot
 * Marie-Reine de Jaham
 * Alain Jouffroy, poet, art critic, plastician
 * Fabienne Kanor
 * Jean de La Bruyère
 * Jean de La Fontaine
 * Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
 * Comte de Lautréamont (Isidore Ducasse)
 * Leconte de Lisle, parnassian poet
 * Alphonse de Lamartine
 * Jacques Lacan, psychoanalyst
 * Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, historian
 * Paul Lafargue
 * Jules Laforgue
 * Valéry Larbaud
 * Maurice Leblanc, created Arsène Lupin
 * Marie Léra, journalist, novelist, and translator
 * Gaston Leroux, journalist and author, credited with creating the locked room puzzle mystery novel Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (The Mystery of the Yellow Room) and author of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera)
 * Pauline de Lézardière, 18th-century historian
 * Stéphane Mallarmé, poet
 * Hector Malot, 19th-century author
 * André Malraux
 * Matthieu Marais, 18th-century lawyer and writer
 * Marcel Marceau, 20th-century mime (and member of the French Resistance in World War II)
 * René Maran
 * Pierre de Marivaux, playwright
 * Clément Marot, poet
 * Guy de Maupassant, novelist
 * François Mauriac, Roman Catholic writer
 * Daniel Maximin
 * Prosper Mérimée, 19th-century novelist
 * Catherine Millet, art expert, editor and erotic memoirist
 * Patrick Modiano
 * Jean Baptiste Poquelin dit Molière, 17th-century comedic playwright and actor
 * Alfred de Musset, 19th-century poet
 * Claire Julie de Nanteuil, 19th-century writer
 * Gérard de Nerval
 * Paul Niger
 * Anaïs Nin
 * Mona Ozouf, historian

P–Z

 * Marcel Pagnol
 * Gisela Pankow, psychoanalyst
 * Ève Paul-Margueritte, novelist
 * Lucie Paul-Margueritte, writer and translator
 * Charles Péguy, 20th-century poet
 * Charles Perrault, Mother Goose Tales
 * Georges Perec
 * Saint-John Perse
 * Roger Peyrefitte
 * Jean Piaget, psychologist
 * Jean Piat
 * Gisèle Pineau
 * Christine de Pizan, historian, poet, philosopher
 * Jacques Prévert, 20th-century poet
 * Abbé Prévost
 * Marcel Prévost
 * Marcel Proust, novelist
 * Raymond Queneau
 * François Rabelais, Renaissance writer
 * Raymond Radiguet
 * Jean Racine, classicist playwright
 * Pauline Réage, novelist
 * Gabrielle Réval, novelist and essayist
 * Arthur Rimbaud, symbolist poet
 * Alain Robbe-Grillet
 * Pierre de Ronsard
 * Edmond Rostand, neo-romantic playwright
 * Raymond Roussel
 * Maximilien Rubel
 * Marquis de Sade, erotic and philosophic author
 * Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
 * George Sand, feminist author
 * Jean-Paul Sartre, 20th-century existentialist philosopher
 * Nathalie Sarraute
 * André Schwarz-Bart
 * Simone Schwarz-Bart
 * Pierre Seel, homosexual survivor of the concentration camps, activist, author
 * Victor Segalen
 * Madame de Sévigné
 * Audrey Spiry
 * Madame de Staël
 * Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator
 * Claude Simon
 * Stendhal, novelist (born Henry Beyle)
 * Alain Tasso, poet, painter, essayist, art critic, literary critic
 * Raphaël Tardon
 * Guy Tirolien
 * François Truffaut, 20th-century filmmaker
 * Paul Valéry, 20th-century poet
 * Vercors, pseudonym of Jean Bruller
 * Paul Verlaine, symbolist poet
 * Jules Verne, novelist
 * Boris Vian, 20th-century author
 * Alfred de Vigny, 19th-century poet
 * Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
 * François Villon
 * Voltaire
 * Myriam Warner-Vieyra
 * Marguerite Yourcenar
 * Joseph Zobel
 * Émile Zola, naturalist author

Aviators

 * Clément Ader
 * Jacqueline Auriol
 * Louis Blériot
 * Henri Farman
 * René Fonck
 * Roland Garros, first to cross the Mediterranean; French Open is named after him.
 * Georges Guynemer
 * Raymonde de Laroche
 * Hubert Latham
 * Léon Lemartin
 * Marie Marvingt
 * Jean Mermoz
 * Les Frères Robert, balloonists Anne-Jean Robert and Nicolas-Louis Robert
 * Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author and aviator
 * André Turcat
 * Gabriel Voisin

Business

 * Bernard Arnault (born 1949), entrepreneur
 * Marie-Claude Beaud (born 1946), museumist
 * Liliane Bettencourt, cosmetics
 * Marcel Bich (1914–1994), Bic pens
 * Vincent Bolloré (born 1952), transportation and engineering
 * Marcel Boussac, textiles, fashion, newspapers, race horse breeding
 * Anne Bouverot (born 1966), telecommunications business executive
 * Ettore Bugatti (1881–1947), automobile manufacturer
 * André Citroën (1878–1935), automobile manufacturer
 * Adolphe Clément-Bayard (1855–1928), transportation manufacturer
 * Marcel Dassault (1892–1986), aviation
 * Alexandre Darracq (1855–1931), automotive pioneer
 * Claude Dauphin (1951–2015), commodities trader
 * Pierre Dauzier (1939–2007), businessman, former president of Havas
 * Louis Delâge (1874–1947), automotive pioneer
 * Émile Delahaye (1843–1905), automotive pioneer
 * Gérard Louis-Dreyfus (1932–2016), agricultural commodities
 * Eleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours (1771–1834), founder of DuPont
 * Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817), entrepreneur
 * Jacques Foccart (1913–1997), import-export
 * Léon Gaumont, pioneer film inventor
 * Paul-Louis Halley (1934–2004), supermarket tycoon
 * Max Hymans (1900–1961), aviation
 * Jean-Marie Messier (born 1957), former Vivendi CEO
 * Gérard Mestrallet (born 1949), chairman and CEO of Suez
 * Gérard Mulliez, entrepreneur
 * Xavier Niel (born 1967), entrepreneur and businessman at Iliad
 * Charles Pathé, film industry pioneer
 * Armand Peugeot (1849–1915), automobile manufacturer
 * François Pinault (born 1936), entrepreneur
 * Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont (1726–1803), shipping magnate and a "Father of the American Revolution"
 * Marcel Renault (1872–1903), co-founder of automobile manufacturer Renault
 * César Ritz, hotelier
 * James Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868), banker
 * Philippe de Rothschild (1902–1988), winemaker
 * Jeanne de La Saulcée (died 1559), Lyon publisher, printer, bookseller
 * Eugène Schueller (1881–1954), founder of L'Oréal
 * Bernard Tapie (1943–2021), entrepreneur
 * Pierre Vidoue (c. 1490–1543), Parisian printer and bookseller

Chefs

 * Raymond Blanc
 * Paul Bocuse
 * Daniel Boulud
 * Michel Bras
 * Pascal Caffet
 * Marie-Antoine Carême
 * Alain Ducasse
 * Adolphe Dugléré
 * Auguste Escoffier
 * Pierre Gagnaire
 * Michel Guérard
 * Victor Hirtzler
 * Marc Lanteri
 * Ludovic Lefebvre
 * Jacques Pépin
 * Georges Perrier
 * Fernand Point
 * Charles Ranhofer
 * Eric Ripert
 * Joël Robuchon
 * Albert Roux
 * Michel Roux
 * Michel Roux, Jr.
 * Julien Royer
 * Guy Savoy
 * Paul Thalamas
 * François Vatel
 * Marc Veyrat
 * Jean-Georges Vongerichten
 * Philippe Etchebest
 * Hélène Darroze
 * Paul Pairet
 * Michel Sarran

Colonial administrators

 * Félix Éboué, Governor General of French Equatorial Africa
 * Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, French Congo
 * Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, Louisiana
 * Samuel de Champlain, New France
 * François Caron, first Governor of French territories of India
 * François Martin, Governor for French territories in India
 * Pierre Christoph Le Noir, Governor for French territories in India
 * Pierre Benoît Dumas, Governor for French territories in India
 * Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, French naval officer and administrator, in the service of the French East India Company.
 * Joseph François Dupleix, Governor for French territories in India
 * Lally-Tollendal, Governor for French territories in India
 * Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau, Governor for French territories in India
 * Louis Faidherbe, Senegal
 * Joseph Gallieni, Madagascar
 * Francis Garnier, French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos)
 * Émile Gentil, French Congo
 * Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey, Algeria
 * Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, Louisiana
 * Jean Talon, Canada

Craftspeople and inventors

 * André Charles Boulle, cabinet maker
 * Louis Braille, blind inventor
 * Charles Cros, poet and inventor
 * Paul Héroult, inventor
 * Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans, designed the first steamship in 1783
 * René François Lacôte, luthier
 * René Lalique, glass designer
 * Marie-Anne Leroudier, embroiderer
 * Auguste and Louis Lumière, inventors
 * Benoît Raclet, inventor
 * Philippe Starck, industrial architect and designer
 * Franky Zapata, inventor of flyboard and flyboard Air

Criminals
For collaboration with Nazi Germany see also the politicians section.

 * Jacques de Bernonville (1897–1972), war criminal sentenced to death
 * Jules Bonnot
 * Léon Lacombe, anarchist burglar and murderer
 * Henri Désiré Landru, serial killer
 * Émile Louis
 * Jacques Mesrine
 * Zacarias Moussaoui
 * Maurice Papon, politician and war criminal
 * Marcel Petiot, serial killer
 * Gilles de Rais, prolific serial killer
 * Jean-Claude Romand, murderer
 * Albert Spaggiari
 * Charles Sobhraj, killer
 * Paul Touvier, one of only two Frenchmen to be convicted of crimes against humanity

Dancers

 * Josette Amiel
 * Jane Avril
 * La Goulue
 * Sylvie Guillem
 * Marcelle Lender
 * Cléo de Mérode
 * Claire Motte
 * Antonine Meunier
 * Jacqueline Moreau
 * Hellé Nice
 * François Perron
 * Roland Petit
 * Jeanne Schwarz
 * Solange Schwarz
 * Les Twins, Larry and Laurent Bourgeois

Economists

 * Antoine Augustin Cournot
 * Maurice Allais, Nobel Prize
 * Raymond Barre, economist and politician
 * Frédéric Bastiat
 * Fernand Braudel
 * Alexandre Cazeau de Roumillac
 * Jules Dupuit
 * Gérard Debreu, Nobel memorial prize 1983
 * Charles Gide
 * Dominique Guellec
 * Achille-Nicolas Isnard, political economist and engineer
 * Jean-Jacques Laffont
 * Pierre Émile Levasseur
 * Alain Lipietz, green economist
 * Bernard Maris
 * Thomas Piketty
 * Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
 * François Quesnay
 * Pascal Salin
 * Jean-Baptiste Say
 * Jean Tirole
 * Turgot
 * Léon Walras

Fashion

 * Christian Audigier, fashion designer and business man
 * Liliane Bettencourt, majority owner of L'Oréal, one of the wealthiest people in Europe
 * Pierre Cardin, fashion designer
 * Laetitia Casta, model
 * Coco Chanel, fashion designer
 * Jean-Charles de Castelbajac
 * Hubert de Givenchy
 * Inès de La Fressange, model and fashion designer
 * Christian Dior, fashion designer
 * Morgane Dubled, model
 * Julien Fournié
 * Jean Paul Gaultier
 * Daniel Hechter, inventor of ready-to-wear
 * Christian Lacroix
 * Jeanne Lanvin, fashion designer
 * Noémie Lenoir, model
 * Christian Louboutin, shoe designer
 * Iris Mittenaere, model, Miss France 2016 and Miss Universe 2016
 * Jennifer Messelier, model
 * Claude Montana
 * Thierry Mugler
 * Paul Poiret
 * Nina Ricci, fashion designer
 * Sonia Rykiel
 * Yves Saint Laurent, fashion designer
 * Hedi Slimane
 * Louis Vuitton, fashion designer

Filmmakers

 * Mona Achache
 * Olivier Assayas
 * Jacques Audiard
 * Jacques Becker
 * Jean-Jacques Beineix
 * Luc Besson
 * Yves Billon
 * Alice Guy-Blaché
 * Bertrand Blier
 * Patrick Bokanowski
 * Bertrand Bonello
 * Martin Bourboulon
 * Catherine Breillat
 * Robert Bresson
 * Laurent Cantet
 * Yves Caumon
 * André Cayatte
 * Claude Chabrol
 * Jean-Paul Civeyrac
 * René Clair
 * René Clément
 * Henri-Georges Clouzot
 * Jean Cocteau
 * Romain Cogitore
 * Fabien Cousteau
 * Jacques Cousteau
 * Jacques Demy
 * Claire Denis
 * Arnaud Desplechin
 * Henri Diamant-Berger
 * Abel Gance
 * Jean-Luc Godard
 * Michel Gondry
 * Michel Hazanavicius
 * Vanessa Filho
 * Jean-Pierre Jeunet
 * Mathieu Kassovitz
 * Jan Kounen
 * Hélène Lam Trong
 * Patrice Leconte
 * Claude Lelouch
 * Philippe Lioret
 * Teddy Lussi-Modeste
 * Louis Malle
 * André Malraux
 * Georges Méliès
 * Jean-Pierre Melville
 * Maurice Pialat
 * Jean Renoir
 * Alain Resnais
 * Jacques Rivette
 * Yves Robert
 * Éric Rohmer
 * Jean Rollin
 * Alain Sarde
 * Claude Sautet
 * Ramzi Ben Sliman
 * Straub-Huillet
 * Jacques Tati
 * Jacques Tourneur
 * Maurice Tourneur
 * François Truffaut
 * Roger Vadim
 * Agnès Varda
 * Flore Vasseur
 * Jean Vigo

Humorists

 * Alain Chabat
 * Coluche
 * Pierre Dac, humorist and Resistance worker
 * Jamel Debbouze
 * Pierre Desproges
 * Raymond Devos
 * Gad Elmaleh
 * Florence Foresti
 * Thierry Le Luron
 * Dieudonné M'bala M'bala
 * Elie Semoun
 * Cabu
 * Stef and Jim

A–J

 * Dominique A
 * Air (band)
 * Alizée
 * Charles Aznavour
 * Josephine Baker, American-born entertainer
 * Thomas Bangalter, member of Daft Punk
 * Jane Bathori, opera singer
 * Barbara
 * Guy Béart
 * Bénabar
 * Carla Bruni
 * Michel Berger
 * Didier Bocquet
 * Pierre Bouvier
 * Lucienne Boyer
 * Georges Brassens
 * Breakbot
 * Aristide Bruant
 * Julie Budet
 * Manu Chao
 * Sébastien Charlier
 * Matthieu Chedid
 * Richard Clayderman, pianist
 * Chuck Comeau
 * Marie-Anne Couperin
 * Dalida
 * Damia
 * Claude Debussy
 * David Desrosiers
 * Natalie Dessay, opera singer
 * Dimitri from Paris
 * Sacha Distel, heartthrob: covered "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"
 * Marie Dubas
 * Jacques Dutronc
 * Kenza Farah
 * Mylène Farmer
 * Jean Ferrat
 * Léo Ferré
 * Nino Ferrer
 * Thomas Fersen
 * Claude François, popular singer during the 1960s and 1970s
 * Fréhel
 * Charlotte Gainsbourg
 * Serge Gainsbourg
 * France Gall
 * Laurent Garnier
 * Gipsy Kings
 * Georgius
 * Gesaffelstein
 * Jean-Jacques Goldman
 * Stéphane Grappelli, jazz musician
 * Juliette Gréco
 * Gribouille (born Marie-France Gaîté)
 * Hélène Grimaud, classical pianist
 * David Guetta, house-music producer and DJ
 * Yvette Guilbert
 * Arthur H
 * David Hallyday
 * Johnny Hallyday, born in Belgium, served in the French Army
 * Françoise Hardy
 * Jacques Higelin
 * Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, member of Daft Punk
 * Indila
 * Sébastien Izambard, member of the quartet Il Divo
 * IAM
 * Joëlle
 * Justice

K–Z

 * Patricia Kaas
 * Kaoma
 * Kassav'
 * Kavinsky
 * Rina Ketty
 * Kiki, "Queen of Montparnasse"
 * La Goulue
 * Larusso
 * Boby Lapointe
 * Bernard Lavilliers
 * Maxime Le Forestier
 * Sébastien Lefebvre
 * Gérard Lenorman
 * Nolwenn Leroy
 * Lilly Wood and the Prick
 * Claudine Longet
 * Didier Lucchesi
 * Sheryfa Luna
 * M83
 * Madeon
 * Christophe Maé
 * Mano Negra
 * Luis Mariano
 * Anna Marly
 * Alain Marion
 * Didier Marouani, musician and composer
 * Mireille Mathieu
 * Félix Mayol
 * Miossec
 * Mireille
 * Mistinguett
 * Ginette Neveu
 * Yannick Noah
 * Claude Nougaro
 * Vincent Niclo
 * NTM
 * Noir Désir
 * Vanessa Paradis
 * Pierre Perret
 * Michel Petrucciani
 * Édith Piaf
 * Michel Polnareff
 * Lily Pons, opera singer (naturalized as a United States citizen in 1940)
 * Rene Rancourt
 * Renaud
 * Tino Rossi
 * Jean Sablon
 * Sebastian
 * David Serero
 * Bob Sinclar
 * Skip the Use
 * Alain Souchon
 * Mano Solo
 * Jeff Stinco
 * Sébastien Tellier
 * Yann Tiersen
 * Charles Trenet
 * Christian Vander
 * Sylvie Vartan
 * Boris Vian
 * Pauline Viardot, opera singer and composer
 * Pedro Winter
 * Zazie

Philosophers

 * Pierre Abélard
 * Louis Althusser
 * Raymond Aron, sociologist and philosopher
 * Jean le Rond d'Alembert
 * Gaston Bachelard
 * Georges Bataille
 * Roland Barthes
 * Jean Baudrillard, philosopher and sociologist
 * Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist
 * Julien Benda
 * Henri Bergson
 * Louis de Bonald
 * Émile Boutroux
 * Fabienne Brugère
 * Michel de Certeau
 * François-René de Chateaubriand
 * Auguste Comte
 * André Comte-Sponville
 * Jean de Crèvecœur
 * Guy Debord
 * Gilles Deleuze
 * Natalie Depraz
 * Jacques Derrida
 * René Descartes, scientist and philosopher
 * Denis Diderot, Enlightenment author and deist philosopher
 * Frantz Fanon
 * Michel Foucault
 * Camille Froidevaux-Metterie
 * Édouard Glissant
 * Félix Guattari
 * René Guénon
 * Vladimir Jankélévitch
 * Étienne de La Boétie, philosopher and politician
 * Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
 * Félicité de Lamennais
 * Henri Lefèbvre
 * Marcel Légaut, Christian philosopher
 * Jean de Léry, corsaire and ethnologist, anti-racism activist
 * Emmanuel Lévinas
 * Jean-François Lyotard
 * Joseph de Maistre
 * Nicolas Malebranche
 * Gabriel Marcel, philosopher
 * Jacques Maritain, philosopher
 * Maurice Merleau-Ponty, phenomenologist
 * Michel de Montaigne, philosopher essayist
 * Montesquieu, political philosopher
 * Edgar Morin
 * Emmanuel Mounier, philosopher
 * Jean-Luc Nancy, philosopher
 * Blaise Pascal, scientist, mathematician, Christian philosopher, and author
 * Juliette Rennes, sociologist
 * Jean-François Revel
 * Paul Ricœur
 * Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 * Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialist philosopher
 * Michel Serres
 * Hippolyte Taine
 * Alexis de Tocqueville
 * François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), Enlightenment author, deist/agnostic philosopher
 * Éric Weil, philosopher
 * Simone Weil

Politicians

 * Robert Badinter, lawyer, statesman and anti-death-sentence activist
 * François Bayrou, UDF party leader
 * Léon Blum, politician, Socialist party leader, prime minister
 * José Bové, anti-globalization activist, altermondialist
 * Aristide Briand
 * Jacques Chirac, politician, member of center-right wing party, former city mayor of Paris, two-term French president
 * Georges Clemenceau
 * Gaspard de Coligny
 * Bertrand Delanoë, mayor of Paris
 * Jacques Delors
 * Félix Faure, President of France who died of a heart attack while making love to his mistress
 * Charles de Gaulle, heroic World War II general, commander of the Free French Forces, French president
 * Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
 * François Guizot, Prime Minister
 * Gisèle Halimi, lawyer and feminist activist
 * François Hollande, former PS (Socialist Party) leader, former French president (15 May 2012 – 14 May 2017)
 * Jean Jaurès, politician, pacifist
 * Lionel Jospin, socialist, former prime minister
 * Bernard Kouchner, founder of Médecins du Monde
 * Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme right party in France, Front National, presidential candidate
 * Louis Lépine, Paris police chief, governor of Algiers, founder of the Concours Lépine
 * Émile Loubet, President of France who was elected in 1899, after the death of Félix Faure
 * Henri-Auguste Lozé, Paris police chief, senator of the Third Republic
 * Emmanuel Macron, founder and current President of Renaissance, current President of France (from 14 May 2017)
 * Jean-Paul Marat, politician during the Revolution, journalist, physician, scientist
 * Jean-Claude Martinez, lawyer and European deputy
 * Pierre Mendès France, lawyer and statesman, prime minister
 * Honoré Mirabeau
 * François Mitterrand, lawyer and statesman, president
 * Jean Monnet
 * Philippe Pétain, head of Vichy France
 * Alexandre de Prouville, Viceroy of New France
 * Marthe Richard
 * Maximilien Robespierre, statesman and major figure in the French Revolution
 * Gilberte Roca (1911–2004), Communist
 * Jacques Rolland (1914–1999), politician
 * Ségolène Royal, politician, Socialist party, presidential candidate
 * Nicolas Sarkozy, politician, President of the right wing party
 * Victor Schœlcher, anti-slavery activist
 * Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
 * Maurice Thorez
 * Jacques Toubon
 * Dominique de Villepin, former Prime Minister of France
 * Dominique Voynet, physician and Green party politician

Resistance workers
Resistance workers during the German military administration in occupied France during World War II

 * Lucie Samuel-Aubrac (1912–2007), human rights activist
 * Raymond Aubrac (1914–2012), statesman
 * Robert Benoist (1895–1944), SOE operative, champion race car driver
 * Denise Bloch (1915–1945), SOE operative: King's Commendation for Brave Conduct, Legion of Honor, French Resistance Medal
 * Andrée Borrel (1919–1944), SOE operative: Croix de guerre
 * Bernadette Cattanéo (1899–1963), trade unionist and communist activist
 * Madeleine Damerment (1917–1944), SOE operative: Legion of Honor, Croix de guerre, Médaille combattant volontaire de la Résistance
 * Marie Louise Dissard (1880–1957), U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
 * William Grover-Williams (1903–1945), SOE operative, champion race car driver
 * Aimée Lallement (1898–1988), Righteous Among the Nations
 * Cecily Lefort (1900–1945), SOE operative: Croix de guerre
 * Pierre Mendès France (1907–1982), lawyer, statesman
 * Jean Moulin (1899–1943), statesman
 * Agnès de La Barre de Nanteuil (1922–1944), assisted allied airmen
 * Abbé Pierre (1912–2007), priest and founder of Emmaus
 * Christian Pineau (1904–1995), statesman
 * Eliane Plewman (1917–1944), SOE operative: Croix de guerre
 * Germaine Ribière (1917–1999), Righteous among the Nations
 * Élise Rivet (1890–1945), nun executed by Nazis for aiding the resistance
 * Lilian Rolfe (1914–1945), SOE agent executed by the Nazis
 * Odette Sansom (1912–1995), SOE operative: George Cross, MBE, Legion of Honor
 * Suzanne Spaak, Belgian-born agent: "Red Orchestra" intelligence network; executed 1944
 * Violette Szabo (1921–1945), SOE operative: George Cross, Croix de guerre
 * Jean-Pierre Wimille (1908–1949), SOE operative, champion race car driver

 * See also French Resistance

Social activists

 * Hubertine Auclert, journalist and feminist leader
 * Simone de Beauvoir, author, philosopher, and feminist
 * Christian de Boisredon, social activist
 * Geneviève de Brunelle, counter-revolutionary
 * Sophie de Condorcet, feminist
 * Maria Deraismes, feminist
 * Camille Drevet, anti-colonialist, feminist and pacifist activist
 * Marguerite Durand, journalist and feminist leader
 * Anna Féresse-Deraismes feminist activist
 * Olympe de Gouges, feminist
 * Floresca Guépin, feminist and teacher
 * Alice Jouenne, educator and socialist activist
 * Samir Kassir, journalist
 * Jean Théophile Victor Leclerc, radical revolutionist, newspaper publisher
 * Marie Léopold-Lacour, feminist activist, writer, and storyteller
 * Félix Pécaut, education proponent and pastor
 * Gabrielle Petit, feminist activist, anticlerical, libertarian socialist, newspaper editor
 * Élisabeth Renaud, teacher, socialist activist, feminist
 * Colette Reynaud, feminist, socialist, pacifist, journalist
 * Victor Schœlcher, abolitionist
 * Pierre Seel, homosexual concentration camp survivor, activist, author
 * Séverine, feminist
 * Madeleine Tribolati (1905–1995), trade unionist
 * Flora Tristan, feminist

Soldiers

 * Joan of Arc, commander and saint
 * Chevalier Bayard
 * François Achille Bazaine
 * Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
 * Georges Boulanger
 * Thomas Robert Bugeaud
 * Raymond H. A. Carter
 * François de Charette
 * Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, known as le Grand Condé.
 * Gaspard de Coligny
 * François Darlan
 * Louis-Nicolas Davout
 * Bob Denard
 * Alfred Dreyfus
 * Charles François Dumouriez
 * Ferdinand Foch
 * Louis Franchet d'Espèrey
 * Joseph Gallieni
 * Maurice Gamelin
 * Henri Gouraud
 * Bertrand du Guesclin
 * Joseph Joffre
 * Edmond Jouhaud
 * Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
 * Alphonse Juin
 * Marie-Pierre Kœnig
 * Jacques de la Palice
 * Marquis de Lafayette
 * Charles Leclerc
 * Jean Lannes
 * Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
 * Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
 * François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg
 * Hubert Lyautey
 * Patrice MacMahon
 * Charles Mangin
 * Claude Martin
 * André Masséna
 * Jacques Massu
 * Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
 * Simon de Montfort
 * Philippe Morillon
 * Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte
 * Joachim Murat
 * Michel Ney
 * Robert Nivelle
 * Philippe Pétain
 * Comte de Rochambeau
 * Raoul Salan
 * Maurice Sarrail
 * Nicolas Soult
 * Louis Jules Trochu
 * Henri de Turenne
 * Étienne de Vignolles, called La Hire
 * Claude Louis Hector de Villars
 * Maxime Weygand

Theologians
O.P. (Ordo Praedicatorum) is the abbreviation used to indicate that someone is/was a member of the Dominican Order, a Catholic religious order. S.J. (Societas Iesu) is the abbreviation used to indicate that someone is/was a member of the Society of Jesus, another Catholic religious order.

 * Jean Arnauld, philosopher and theologian
 * Denis Bérardier, priest and theologian
 * Marie-Émile Boismard O.P.
 * Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
 * Jean Calvin
 * Sebastian Castellio, translator of the Bible
 * Pierre Cauchon, condemned Joan of Arc
 * Robert Ciboule, Roman Catholic theologian
 * Bernard of Clairvaux
 * Jean Claude
 * Yves Congar, O.P.
 * Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
 * Hubert Languet
 * Maurice Leenhardt, ethnologist, theologian
 * Jean Louail, theologian
 * André Paul, scholar in the fields of theology, biblical studies and ancient Judaism
 * François Picquet, 18th-century missionary in New France
 * Jean Porthaise, theologian
 * Alexander de Rhodes S.J., 17th-century missionary to Indochina
 * Richard of Saint-Laurent, canon at Rouen
 * Auguste Sabatier
 * Antonin Sertillanges O.P., founder of the Revue Thomiste
 * Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.
 * Simon-Michel Treuvé

Others

 * Marie-Louise Arconati-Visconti (1840–1923), art collector, philanthropist
 * Fabrice Balanche, geographer
 * Marcel Bardiaux, sailor
 * Suzanne Borel, first French woman diplomat
 * Jean-Gérard Bursztein, psychoanalist
 * Jeanne Calment, title claimant for the longest documented human lifespan – 122 years and 164 days
 * Pierre de Coubertin, initiator of the modern Olympic Games
 * The Countess, transgender courtesan, demimondaine, singer, artist, and writer
 * Jean Crépin, Army general
 * François Louis Castelnaux Darrac, upholsterer
 * Solange d'Ayen, noblewoman and journalist
 * Ninon de l'Enclos, courtesan, patron of the arts
 * Cavalier de la Salle, explorer
 * Maurice Debesse, educator
 * Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe, philanthropist, aviation supporter
 * René Dumont, agronomist engineer and sociologist and ecology activist
 * Jules Dumont d'Urville
 * Maurice Duverger, jurist
 * Gustave Eiffel, engineer
 * Pierre Charles L'Enfant, city planner responsible for Washington, D.C.
 * Charles-Michel de l'Épée, founder of world's first public school for deaf people
 * Norbert Ferré, illusionist
 * Robert Gloton, educator
 * Arthur de Gobineau, diplomat, author of An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races
 * Lucie Grange, medium and feminist prophet
 * Marie de Hennezel, psychologist, psychotherapist and writer
 * Daniel Le Hirbec, navigator
 * Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds, explorer and canal engineer
 * Marie-Antoinette Lix, governess and resistance fighter
 * Brigitte Macron, high school teacher, first lady of France
 * Virginie Mauvais, educator, philanthropist
 * Philippe Méaille, contemporary art collector
 * Montgolfier brothers, balloonists
 * François Henri de la Motte, French spy executed for treason 1781 in London
 * Nostradamus, physician, author, translator, astrological consultant
 * Charles François Adrien le Paulmier, diplomat, nobleman, and slaveholder
 * Anne Quemere, sailor and sportswoman
 * Jean-Marie Raoul, lawyer, musician
 * Élisée Reclus, geographer and anarchist
 * Jean-François Ricard (born 1956), prosecutor of the French National Terrorism Prosecution Office
 * Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, magician, namesake of "Harry Houdini"
 * Pierre Seel, homosexual survivor of the concentration camps, activist, author
 * Odette Teissier du Cros (1906–1997), ethnologist, museum curator
 * Vauban, engineer
 * Eugène François Vidocq, French convict-turned-spy considered the father of modern forensics

title: List of French people


text:
Five-card draw

Five-card draw (also known as Cantredraw) is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players. It is commonly played in home games but rarely played in casino and tournament play. The variant is also offered by some online venues, although it is not as popular as other variants such as seven-card stud and Texas hold 'em.

Gameplay
In casino play the first betting round begins with the player to the left of the big blind, and subsequent rounds begin with the player to the dealer's left. Home games typically use an ante; the first betting round begins with the player to the dealer's left, and the second round begins with the player who opened the first round.

Play begins with each player being dealt five cards, one at a time, all face down. The remaining deck is placed aside, often protected by placing a chip or other marker on it. Players pick up the cards and hold them in their hands, being careful to keep them concealed from the other players, then a round of betting occurs.

If more than one player remains after the first round, the "draw" phase begins. Each player specifies how many of their cards they wish to replace and discards them. The deck is retrieved, and each player is dealt in turn from the deck the same number of cards they discarded so that each player again has five cards.

A second "after the draw" betting round occurs beginning with the player to the dealer's left or else beginning with the player who opened the first round (the latter is common when antes are used instead of blinds). This is followed by a showdown, if more than one player remains, in which the player with the best hand wins the pot.

House rules
A common "house rule" in some places is that a player may not replace more than three cards, unless they draw four cards while keeping an ace (or wild card). This rule is useful for low-stakes social games where many players will stay for the draw, and will help avoid depletion of the deck. In more serious games such as those played in casinos it is unnecessary and generally not used. However, a rule used by many casinos is that a player is not allowed to draw five consecutive cards from the deck. In this case, if a player wishes to replace all five of their cards, that player is given four of them in turn, the other players are given their draws, and then the dealer returns to that player to give the fifth replacement card; if no other player draws it is necessary to deal a burn card first.

Another common house rule is that the bottom card of the deck is never given as a replacement, to avoid the possibility of someone who might have seen it during the deal using that information. If the deck is depleted during the draw before all players have received their replacements, the last players can receive cards chosen randomly from among those discarded by previous players. For example, if the last player to draw wants three replacements but there are only two cards remaining in the deck, the dealer gives the player the one top card he can give, then shuffles together the bottom card of the deck, the burn card, and the earlier players' discards (but not the player's own discards), and finally deals two more replacements to the last player.

Sample deal
The sample deal is being played by four players as shown to the right with Alice dealing. All four players ante $1. Alice deals five cards to each player and places the deck aside.

Bob opens the betting round by betting $5. Carol folds, David calls, and Alice calls, closing the betting round.

Bob now declares that he wishes to replace three of his cards, so he removes those three cards from his hand and discards them. Alice retrieves the deck, deals a burn card, then deals three cards directly to Bob, who puts them in his hand. David discards one card, and Alice deals one card to him from the deck. Alice now discards three of her own cards, and replaces them with three from the top of the deck.

Now a second betting round begins. Bob checks, David checks, Alice bets $10, Bob folds, David raises $16, and Alice calls, ending the second betting round and going directly into a showdown. David shows a flush, and Alice shows two pair, so David takes the pot.

Stripped deck variant
Five-card draw is sometimes played with a stripped deck. This variant is commonly known as "seven-to-ace" or "ace-to-seven" (abbreviated as A-7 or 7-A). It can be played by up to five players. When four or fewer players play, a normal 32-card deck without jokers, with ranks ranging from ace to seven, is used. With five players, the sixes are added to make a 36-card deck. The deck thus contains only eight or nine different card ranks, compared to 13 in a standard deck. This affects the probabilities of making specific hands, so a flush ranks above a full house and below four of a kind. Many smaller online poker rooms, such as Boss Media, spread the variant, although it is unheard of in terrestrial casinos.

Maths of Five-card draw

 * Pre-draw odds of getting each hand

 * Royal flush	<0.001%
 * Straight flush (not including royal flush)	<0.002%
 * Four of a kind	0.02%
 * Full house	0.14%
 * Flush (excluding royal flush and straight flush)	0.20%
 * Straight (excluding royal flush and straight flush)	0.39%
 * Three of a kind	2.11%
 * Two pair	4.75%
 * One pair	42.30%
 * No pair / High card	50.10%

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Five-card draw


text:
Flaming (Internet)

Flaming, also known as roasting, is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. Flaming is distinct from trolling, which is the act of someone causing discord online or in person. Flaming emerges from the anonymity that Internet forums provide for users and which allow them to act more aggressively. Anonymity can lead to disinhibition, which results in the swearing, offensive, and hostile language characteristic of flaming. Lack of social cues, less accountability of face-to-face communications, textual mediation and deindividualization are also likely factors. Deliberate flaming is carried out by individuals known as flamers, which are specifically motivated to incite flaming. These users specialize in flaming and target specific aspects of a controversial conversation.

While these behaviors may be typical or expected in certain types of forums, they can have dramatic, adverse effects in others. Flame wars can have a lasting impact on some internet communities where even once a flame war has concluded a division or even dissolution may occur.

The pleasant commentaries within a chat room or message board can be limited by a "war of words" fight or "flaming" with the intent to seek out a negative reaction from the reader. Humphreys defines flaming as "the use of hostile language online, including swearing, insults and otherwise offensive language", etc. Flaming by perpetrators within the online community is commonly received by messaging through text and rarely by face to face or video communication. By basing their conversations on text and not taking full accountability as the "flamer", they have a reduced self-awareness of others feelings, emotions and reactions based on the comments that they provide within the virtual community. The reader now has the perception that this "flamer" is difficult, rude and possibly a bully. The flamer may have limited social cues, emotional intelligence to adapt to others reactions and lack of awareness of how they are being perceived. Their personal social norms, may be considered disrespectful to the reader that has different social norms, education and experience with what is and is not appropriate within virtual communities.

The individuals that create an environment of flaming and hostility, lead the readers to disengage with the offender and may potentially leave the message board and chat room. The continual use of flaming within the online community can create a disruptive and negative experience for those involved and can lead to limited involvement and engagement within the original chat room and program.

Purpose
Social researchers have investigated flaming, coming up with several different theories about the phenomenon. These include deindividuation and reduced awareness of other people's feelings (online disinhibition effect),  conformance to perceived norms,  miscommunication caused by the lack of social cues available in face-to-face communication,   and anti-normative behavior.

Jacob Borders, in discussing participants' internal modeling of a discussion, says:"Mental models are fuzzy, incomplete, and imprecisely stated. Furthermore, within a single individual, mental models change with time, even during the flow of a single conversation. The human mind assembles a few relationships to fit the context of a discussion. As debate shifts, so do the mental models. Even when only a single topic is being discussed, each participant in a conversation employs a different mental model to interpret the subject. Fundamental assumptions differ but are never brought into the open. Goals are different but left unstated. It is little wonder that compromise takes so long. And even when consensus is reached, the underlying assumptions may be fallacies that lead to laws and programs that fail. The human mind is not adapted to understanding correctly the consequences implied by a mental model. A mental model may be correct in structure and assumptions but, even so, the human mind—either individually or as a group consensus—is apt to draw the wrong implications for the future."Thus, online conversations often involve a variety of assumptions and motives unique to each individual user. Without social context, users are often helpless to know the intentions of their counterparts. In addition to the problems of conflicting mental models often present in online discussions, the inherent lack of face-to-face communication online can encourage hostility. Professor Norman Johnson, commenting on the propensity of Internet posters to flame one another, states:"The literature suggests that, compared to face-to-face, the increased incidence of flaming when using computer-mediated communication is due to reductions in the transfer of social cues, which decrease individuals' concern for social evaluation and fear of social sanctions or reprisals. When social identity and ingroup status are salient, computer mediation can decrease flaming because individuals focus their attention on the social context (and associated norms) rather than themselves."A lack of social context creates an element of anonymity, which allows users to feel insulated from the forms of punishment they might receive in a more conventional setting. Johnson identifies several precursors to flaming between users, whom he refers to as "negotiation partners," since Internet communication typically involves back-and-forth interactions similar to a negotiation. Flaming incidents usually arise in response to a perception of one or more negotiation partners being unfair. Perceived unfairness can include a lack of consideration for an individual's vested interests, unfavorable treatment (especially when the flamer has been considerate of other users), and misunderstandings aggravated by the inability to convey subtle indicators like non-verbal cues and facial expressions.

Factors
There are multiple factors that play into why people would get involved with flaming. For instance, there is the anonymity factor and that people can use different means to have their identity hidden. Through the hiding of one's identity people can build a new persona and act in a way that they normally would not when they have their identity known. Another factor in flaming is proactive aggression "which is initiated without perceived threat or provocation" and those who are recipients of flaming may counter with flaming of their own and utilize reactive aggression. Another factor that goes into flaming are the different communication variables. For instance, offline communications networks can impact the way people act online and can lead them to engage in flaming. Finally, there is the factor of verbal aggression and how people who engage in verbal aggression will use those tactics when they engage in flaming online.

Flaming can range from subtle to extremely aggressive in online behaviors, such as derogatory images, certain emojis used in combination, and even the use of capital letters. These things can show a pattern of behavior used to convey certain emotions online. Victims should do their best to avoid fighting back in an attempt to prevent a war of words. Flaming extends past social media interactions. Flaming can also take place through emails, and it may not matter so much whether someone calls an email a "flame", is based on whether she or he considers an email to be hostile, aggressive, insulting, or offensive. What matters is how the person receives the interaction. So much is lost in translation when communicating online versus in person, that it is hard to distinguish someone's intent.

History
Evidence of debates which resulted in insults being exchanged quickly back and forth between two parties can be found throughout history. Arguments over the ratification of the United States Constitution were often socially and emotionally heated and intense, with many attacking one another through local newspapers. Such interactions have always been part of literary criticism. For example, Ralph Waldo Emerson's contempt for Jane Austen's works often extended to the author herself, with Emerson describing her as "without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world". In turn, Thomas Carlyle called Emerson a "hoary-headed toothless baboon"

In the modern era, "flaming" was used at East Coast engineering schools in the United States as a present participle in a crude expression to describe an irascible individual and by extension to such individuals on the earliest Internet chat rooms and message boards. Internet flaming was mostly observed in Usenet newsgroups although it was known to occur in the WWIVnet and FidoNet computer networks as well. It was subsequently used in other parts of speech with much the same meaning.

The term "flaming" was seen on Usenet newsgroups in the Eighties, where the start of a flame was sometimes indicated by typing "FLAME ON", then "FLAME OFF" when the flame section of the post was complete. This is a reference to both The Human Torch of the Fantastic Four, who used those words when activating his flame abilities, and to the way text processing programs of the time worked, by placing commands before and after text to indicate how it should appear when printed.

The term "flaming" is documented in The Hacker's Dictionary, which in 1983 defined it as "to speak rabidly or incessantly on an uninteresting topic or with a patently ridiculous attitude". The meaning of the word has diverged from this definition since then.

Jerry Pournelle in 1986 explained why he wanted a kill file for BIX:

"...whereas an open computer conference begins with a small number of well-informed and highly interested participants, it soon attracts others. That's all right; it's supposed to attract others. Where else would you get new ideas? But soon it attracts too many, far too many, and some of them are not only ignorant but aggressively misinformed. Dilution takes place. Arguments replace discussions. Tempers are frayed.

The result is that while computer conferencing began by saving time, it starts to eat up all the time it saved and more. Communications come from dozens of sources. Much of it is redundant. Some of it is stupid. The user spends more and more time dealing with irrelevancies. One day the user wakes up, decides the initial euphoria was spurious, and logs off, never to return. This is known as burnout, and it's apparently quite common."

He added, "I noticed something: most of the irritation came from a handful of people, sometimes only one or two. If I could only ignore them, the computer conferences were still valuable. Alas, it's not always easy to do".

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) research has spent a significant amount of time and effort describing and predicting engagement in uncivil, aggressive online communication. Specifically, the literature has described aggressive, insulting behavior as "flaming", which has been defined as hostile verbal behaviors, the uninhibited expression of hostility, insults, and ridicule, and hostile comments directed towards a person or organization within the context of CMC.

Flame trolling
Flame trolling is the posting of a provocative or offensive message, known as flamebait, to a public Internet discussion group, such as a forum, newsgroup or mailing list, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a "flame") or argument.

Flamebait can provide the poster with a controlled trigger-and-response setting in which to anonymously engage in conflicts and indulge in aggressive behavior without facing the consequences that such behavior might bring in a face-to-face encounter. In other instances, flamebait may be used to reduce a forum's use by angering the forum users. In 2012, it was announced that the US State Department would start flame trolling jihadists as part of Operation Viral Peace.

Among the characteristics of inflammatory behavior, the use of entirely capitalized messages, or the multiple repetition of exclamation marks, along with profanity have been identified as typical.

Flame war
A flame war results when multiple users engage in provocative responses to an original post, which is sometimes flamebait. Flame wars often draw in many users, including those trying to defuse the flame war, and can quickly turn into a mass flame war that overshadows regular forum discussion.

Resolving a flame war can be difficult, as it is often hard to determine who is really responsible for the degradation of a reasonable discussion into a flame war. Someone who posts a contrary opinion in a strongly focused discussion forum may be easily labeled a "baiter", "flamer", or "troll".

Flame wars can become intense and can include "death threats, ad hominem invective, and textual amplifiers,” but to some sociologists flame wars can actually bring people together. What is being said in a flame war should not be taken too seriously since the harsh words are a part of flaming.

An approach to resolving a flame war or responding to flaming is to communicate openly with the offending users. Acknowledging mistakes, offering to help resolve the disagreement, making clear, reasoned arguments, and even self-deprecation have all been noted as worthwhile strategies to end such disputes. However, others prefer to simply ignore flaming, noting that, in many cases, if the flamebait receives no attention, it will quickly be forgotten as forum discussions carry on. Unfortunately, this can motivate trolls to intensify their activities, creating additional distractions.

"Taking the bait" or "feeding the troll" refers to someone who responds to the original message regardless of whether they are aware the original message was intended to provoke a response. Often when someone takes the bait, others will point this out to them with the acronym "YHBT", which is short for "You have been trolled", or reply with "don't feed the trolls". Forum users will usually not give the troll acknowledgement; that just "feeds the troll".

Mass flamewar
A mass flamewar is a flamewar that grows out of a single post or comment into multiple other comments or posts quickly, in the same area where the original post was in. A mass flamewar usually lasts for multiple weeks, months, or even years after the first post was posted and died out.

Political flaming
Political flaming typically occur when people have their views challenged and they seek to have their anger known. Through the covering of one's identity people may be more likely to engage in political flaming. In a 2015 study conducted by Hutchens, Cicchirillo, and Hmielowski, they found that "those who were more experienced with political discussions—either online or offline—were more likely to indicate they would respond with a flame", and they also found that verbal aggression also played a role in a person engaging in political flaming.

Corporate flaming
Corporate flaming is when a large number of critical comments, usually aggressive or insulting, are directed at a company's employees, products, or brands. Common causes include inappropriate behavior of company employees, negative customer experiences, inadequate care of customers and influencers, violation of ethical principles, along with apparent injustices and inappropriate reactions. Flame wars can result in reputational damage, decreased consumer confidence, drops in stock prices and company assets, increased liabilities, increased lawsuits, and a decrease in customers, influencers and sponsors. Based on an assessment of the damage, companies can take years to recover from a flame war that may detract from their core purpose. Kayser notes that companies should prepare for possible flame wars by creating alerts for a predefined "blacklist" of words and monitoring fast-growing topics about their company. Alternatively, Kayser points out that a flame war can lead to a positive experience for the company. Based on the content, it could be shared across multiple platforms and increase company recognition, social media fans/followers, brand presence, purchases, and brand loyalty. Therefore, the type of marketing that results from a flame war can lead to higher profits and brand recognition on a broader scale. Nevertheless, it is encouraged that when a company utilizes social media they should be aware that their content could be used in a flame war and should be treated as an emergency.

Examples
Any subject of a polarizing nature can feasibly cause flaming. As one would expect in the medium of the Internet, technology is a common topic. The perennial debates between users of competing operating systems, such as Windows, Classic Mac OS and macOS operating system, or operating systems based on the Linux kernel and iOS or Android operating system, users of Intel and AMD processors, and users of the Nintendo Switch, Wii U, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One video game systems, often escalate into seemingly unending "flame wars", also called software wars. As each successive technology is released, it develops its own outspoken fan base, allowing arguments to begin anew.

Popular culture continues to generate large amounts of flaming and countless flame wars across the Internet, such as the constant debates between fans of Star Trek and Star Wars. Ongoing discussion of current celebrities and television personalities within popular culture also frequently sparks debate.

In 2005, author Anne Rice became involved in a flame war of sorts on the review boards of online retailer Amazon.com after several reviewers posted scathing comments about her latest novel. Rice responded to the comments with her own lengthy response, which was quickly met with more feedback from users.

In 2007, tech expert Kathy Sierra was a victim of flaming as an image of her depicted as a mutilated body was spread around online forums. In addition to the doctored photo being spread virally, her social security number and home address were made public as well. Consequently, Sierra effectively gave up her technology career in response to the ensuing harassment and threats that she received as a result of the flaming.

In November 2007, the popular audio-visual discussion site AVS Forum temporarily closed its HD DVD and Blu-ray discussion forums because of, as the site reported, "physical threats that have involved police and possible legal action" between advocates of the rival formats.

The 2016 Presidential election, saw a flame war take place between Republican candidate Donald Trump and the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The barbs exchanged between the two was highly publicized and is an example of political flaming and a flame war.

Legal implications
Flaming varies in severity and as such so too does the reaction of states in imposing any sort of sanction. Laws vary from country to country, but in most cases, constant flaming can be considered cyber harassment, which can result in Internet Service Provider action to prevent access to the site being flamed. However, as social networks become more and more closely connected to people and their real life, the more harsh words may be considered defamation of the person. For instance, a South Korean Identity Verification law was created to help control flaming and to stop "malicious use of the internet" but opponents to the law argue that the law infringes on the right to free speech.

title: Flaming (Internet)