# Who are the greatest French men and women? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 25, 2002, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820 "2002-10-25T08:23:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zorro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ad7895/32.png) [@Zorro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zorro)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/1 "2002-10-25T08:23:47Z")
I realise that I may be looking for trouble here, mais merde, tant pis. I’ll throw in a few Enlightenment philosophers, because they did kick off a hell of a lot of good stuff and I’m proud of the boys: Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Montesquieu. And let’s season that with Louis Pasteur, Blaise Pascal, Marie Curie, Albert Camus and on a lighter note, Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Phillippe. OK, bring it on, you Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialist swine! ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/2 "2002-10-25T12:17:53Z")
Asterix the Gaul. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/3 "2002-10-25T13:06:26Z")
I give up. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/4 "2002-10-25T13:17:48Z")
Male: [George Antheil](http://www.schirmer.com/composers/antheil_bio.html), composer of _Ballet Mechanique_ and the _Airplane Sonata_. Female: [Julia Child](http://www.unknown.nu/julia/), the French Chef. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/5 "2002-10-25T13:44:40Z")
Wait a sec…I want to change my answer. The greatest Frenchman that ever lived was… Le Petomaine You can read all about his fartistry here: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_394](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_394) ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/6 "2002-10-25T14:39:20Z")
I would rather put Maria Sklodowska-Curie on list about great Polish men and women. ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/7 "2002-10-25T15:58:40Z")
Napoleon Vive La Republique! (In seriousness though he definitely has a claim on greatness…) ---
**Author:** ![Go\_alien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Go\_alien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_alien)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/8 "2002-10-25T22:31:56Z")
Pasteur, without a doubt. Lots will go for Napoleon, but he was nothing more than a megalomaniac tyrant (as was Alexander teh Great but that’s another thread), responsible for the deaths of millions. Think Hitler and you catch my drift… ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/9 "2002-10-25T23:22:15Z")
Yves Klein [http://www.immoralist.org.uk/klein/klein3.htm](http://www.immoralist.org.uk/klein/klein3.htm) ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/10 "2002-10-26T00:42:47Z")
Napoleon is a tricky one - because it depends on your point of view. if Elizabeth I and Cromwell can get into the english top ten then Boney has a claim on the French position. Speaking as a brit, yes he was an evil guy who needed a good British kicking, but from the French point of view things maybe different… ---
**Author:** ![typhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@typhoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typhoon)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/11 "2002-10-26T00:49:12Z")
Howzabout Descartes? And I’ve always admired [this guy](http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Faberge/eggs.html). ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/12 "2002-10-26T02:11:31Z")
How about Charlemagne? Charles the Great, it’s his name. Yes I know he was Frankish, not French. ---
**Author:** ![Philosophocles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Philosophocles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philosophocles)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/13 "2002-10-26T04:04:18Z")
Has anyone here read “Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed”? I would nominate the Trocmes, who are described in that book. Though if it were limited to very famous people–I’d say Descartes and maybe Joan of Arc. ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/14 "2002-10-26T05:02:31Z")
Charles De Gaulle, Charles Martel, Charlemagne, Jeanne d’Arc, Richelieu, Mazarin, Jean-Jacques Colbert, Napoleon ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/15 "2002-10-26T05:29:29Z")
Jacques Louis-David Jean-Paul Sartre Auguste Rodin ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/16 "2002-10-26T09:18:52Z")
More cool (or not-so-cool-but-important-anyway) French persons… (two courtesy of **bristlesage** ) Vercingetorix (Okay, a Gaul, but hey, it would be France eventually) Bertrand Du Guesclin Claude Monet Hector Berlioz Edgar Degas Henri Toulouse-Lautrec Camille Flammarion Charles Messier Joseph Fourier Antoine Lavoisier Marquis Pierre-Simon De Laplace Jean-François de Galoup, Comte de La Pérouse Simone De Beauvior Pierre-Auguste Renoir Frederic Bartholdi Gustave Eiffel Guy de Maupassant Victor Hugo Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) Claude Debussy ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/17 "2002-10-26T12:46:34Z")
Beldar and Primat Conehead. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/18 "2002-10-26T13:34:20Z")
Man: Napoleon Woman: Laetitia Casta ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-greatest-french-men-and-women/133820/19 "2002-10-27T07:45:30Z")
I’m not sure he’s the greatest frenchman ever, but he’s certainly the contemporary I admire the most (and I very rarely feel admiration): [Theodore Monod](http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/label_france/ENGLISH/IDEES/theodore_monod/page.html) , who was a geologist but also interestedin sociology, geography, etc…and had a passion for Africa in general and the Sahara in particular.During his life, he always was politically on the “right” side (during the occupation of France in particular). Past the age of 90, he was still making expeditions in the Sahara. Unfortunately, he died a coupleof years ago. He’s probably the only french public figure the death of actually saddened me.