1901 in France

Events from the year 1901 in France.

• President: Émile Loubet^[1]
• President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau^[1]

• 17 March – A showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.
• 4 April – first issue of L'Assiette au beurre, satirical magazine created by Samuel-Sigismond Schwarz
• 10 August – Moberly-Jourdain incident.
• 19 October – Alberto Santos-Dumont manages to reach the distance between Saint-Cloud and the Eiffel Tower in an airship in less than 30 minutes and wins the Deutsch prize of 100,000 gold francs

• René Boylesve - La Becquée
• Octave Mirbeau - Les Vingt et un Jours d'un neurasthénique
• Jules Verne
  • Les Histoires de Jean-Marie Cabidoulin
  • Le Village aérien

• Claude Debussy - Pour le piano
• Paul Dukas - Piano Sonata
• Jules Massenet - Grisélidis
• Maurice Ravel - Myrrha
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Les barbares

• 1 January – The French rugby team plays its first Test against the New Zealand All Blacks.

• 1 January – Marcel Balsa, motor racing driver (died 1984)
• 2 January – Louis Poterat, lyricist (died 1982)
• 8 January – Eugène Constant, rower and Olympic medallist (died 1971)
• 19 January – Henri Daniel-Rops, writer and historian (died 1965)
• 24 January – Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, painter, commercial poster artist and typeface designer (died 1968)
• 20 February
  • Marc Detton, rower and Olympic medallist (died 1977)
  • René Dubos, microbiologist, experimental pathologist, environmentalist and humanist (died 1982)
• 21 February
  • Albert Dupouy, rugby union player (died 1973)
  • Pierre Lewden, athlete (died 1989)
• 3 March – Corentin Louis Kervran, scientist (died 1983)
• 17 March – Alexandre Bioussa, rugby union player (died 1966)
• 26 March – Maurice Dorléac, actor (died 1979)

• 7 April –
  • André Trocmé, pastor who aided Jewish refugees (died 1971)
  • Annemarie von Gabain, German linguist (died 1993)
• 8 April – Jean Prouvé, architect and designer (died 1984)
• 13 April – Jacques Lacan, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor (died 1981)
• 15 April – René Pleven, politician (died 1993)
• 20 April – Michel Leiris, surrealist writer and ethnographer (died 1990)
• 24 April – René Le Hénaff, film editor and director (died 2005)
• 15 May – Jacques Natanson, writer (died 1975)
• 18 May - Henri Sauguet, composer (died 1989)
• 25 May
  • Jean Borthayre, operatic baritone (died 1984)
  • André Girard, painter, poster-maker and Resistance member (died 1968)
• 31 May – Charles Brunier, convicted murderer and veteran of the First and Second World Wars who claimed to have been the inspiration for Papillon (died 2007)
• 13 June – Jean Prévost, writer, journalist and member of the Maquis (died 1944)
• 16 June – Henri Lefebvre, sociologist and philosopher (died 1991)
• 24 June – Marcel Mule, classical saxophonist (died 2001)
• 26 June – Jean Boyer, film director and author (died 1965)

• 20 July – Gaston Waringhien, linguist, lexicographer and Esperantist (died 1991)
• 31 July – Jean Dubuffet, painter and sculptor (died 1985)
• 5 August – Claude Autant-Lara, film director and later MEP (died 2000)
• 17 August – Henri Tomasi, composer and conductor (died 1971)
• 18 August
  • Lucienne Boyer, singer (died 1983)
  • Jean Guitton, Catholic philosopher and theologian (died 1999)
• 19 August – René Capitant, lawyer and politician (died 1970)
• 27 August – Pierre Villon, member of the French Communist Party and of the French Resistance (died 1980)
• 29 August – Michel Olçomendy, first Archbishop of the Singapore (died 1977)
• 8 September – Jacques Perret, writer (died 1992)
• 13 September – Claude Dupuy, Roman Catholic archbishop (died 1989)
• 16 September
  • Andrée Brunet, figure skater (died 1993)
  • Louis Joxe, statesman and Minister (died 1991)
• 25 September – Robert Bresson, film director (died 1999)

• 3 October
  • Jean Grémillon, film director (died 1959)
  • François Le Lionnais, chemical engineer and mathematician (died 1984)
• 12 October – Gabriel-Marie Garrone, Cardinal (died 1994)
• 3 November – André Malraux, author, adventurer and statesman (died 1976)
• 14 December – Henri Cochet, tennis player (died 1987)
• 21 December – Roland Ansieau, graphic artist (died 1987)

• 5 January – Pierre Potain, cardiologist (born 1825)
• 13 January – Gaspard Adolphe Chatin, physician, mycologist and botanist (born 1813)
• 16 January – Jules Barbier, poet and librettist (born 1825)
• 28 January – Henri de Bornier, poet and dramatist (born 1825)
• 9 February – Louis-Nicolas Ménard, man of letters (born 1822)
• 17 March – Jean-Charles Cazin, landscape painter and ceramicist (born 1840)
• 29 March – Xavier Barbier de Montault, theologian (born 1830)
• 9 June – Casimir Marie Gaudibert, astronomer and selenographer (born 1823)
• 28 July – Paul Alexis, novelist, dramatist and journalist (born 1847)
• 12 August – Ernest de Jonquières, mathematician (born 1820)
• 17 August – Edmond Audran, composer (born 1840)
• 9 September – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter (born 1864)
• date unknown
  • Henriette Browne, painter and traveller (born 1829)
  • Charles Jalabert, painter (born 1819)

• List of French films before 1910