Category:French

France / French (Home Page) The category: French, highlights the national and linguistic identity of Scholars, Authors and Artists, associated with France and French culture. The French are an ethnic group that primarily inhabit France and speak the French language (circa 110 million). Most French today live within the borders of independent France (circa 64 million). There are French minorities in nearby Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, and sizeable populations of immigrants and their descendants in Canada, the United States, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and other countries. See Wikipedia French : Scholars, Authors, & Artists Language(s) : French English - French - German - Italian - Spanish -//- Afrikaans - Albanian - Arabic - Armenian - Bulgarian - Catalan - Chinese - Croatian - Czech - Danish - Dutch - Estonian - Farsi - Finnish - Greek - Hebrew - Hungarian - Icelandic - Japanese - Korean - Latin - Latvian - Lithuanian - Maltese - Norwegian - Persian - Polish - Portuguese - Romanian - Russian - Serbian - Slovak - Slovenian - Swedish - Ukrainian - Welsh - Yiddish

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Famous Frenchmen

• Jeanne d’Arc (1412-1431) – Military leader.

• Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) - Playwright

• Molière (1622-1675) -- Playwright. Creator of internationally renowned comedy plays such as Tartuffe, The Miser and The Misanthrope. Praised for his satirical wit, socially critical themes and vivid characters. Considered the most important and influential French-language author of all time.

• Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) - Mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic theologian

• Voltaire (1694-1778) – Philosopher and novelist.

• Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) – Military leader and emperor.

• Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) – Novelist

• Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870) – Author and playwright

• Victor Hugo (1802-1885) -- Novelist, poet and playwright. Author of internationally famous and beloved works, such as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables. Also campaigned for freedom of the press and against the death penalty and social injustice.

• Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) – Poet

• Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) -- Chemist. Discovered vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. Developed vaccines against rabies and anthrax.

• Jules Verne (1828-1905) -- Science fiction author.

• Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923) – Architect.

• Claude Monet (1840-1926) – Painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it.

• Émile Zola (1840-1902) - Novelist.

• Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) – Painter

• Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) - Poet

• Louis Lumière (1864-1948) -- Inventor, film director

• Marie Curie (1867-1934) -- Physicist and chemist. Co-discoverer of radioactivity, radium and polonium. First woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) and Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911) and the only person to have won both.

• Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970) -- General and president. Leader of the French resistance movement during World War II. President of France between 1944 and 1946 and between 1958 and 1969. Admired for giving post-war France international prestige and independence in their foreign policy.

• Jean Renoir (1894-1979) – Film director

• Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974) - Novelist, playwright and film director.

• Fernandel (1903-1971) - Singer, actor and comedian.

• Jean Gabin (1904-1976) - Actor.

• Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997) -- Explorer, inventor, documentary maker and oceanographer. Co-inventor of the Aqua-lung, which introduced modern underwater diving. Explored the oceans and made numerous documentaries about them. Championed for marine conservation.

• Abbé Pierre (1912-2007) -- Priest who was a member of the Resistance movement during World War II. Founder of the Emmaus movement, who help poor and homeless people.

• Albert Camus (1913-1960) – Author and philosopher

• Édith Piaf (1915-1963) -- Singer. Internationally famous and beloved for tragic and passionate songs, such as La Vie en Rose, Hymne à l'amour, Milord and Non, je ne regrette rien, which have been covered by numerous artists since. She is widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer and one of the most celebrated performers of the 20th century.

• François Mitterrand (1916-1996) – President.

• Yves Montand (1921-1991) -- Ivo Livi, better known as Yves Montand, was an Italian-born French actor and singer. He is said to be one of France's greatest 20th-century artists.

• Simone Signoret (1921-1985) - Actress

• Brigitte Bardot (1934) -- Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, often referred to by her initials B.B., is a French animal rights activist and former actress, singer, and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters, often with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s–1970s.

• Michel Platini (1955-) - Footballer

• Zinedine Zidane (1972) - Footballer.