🇫🇷 101 Amazing Quotes about France to Inspire and Delight

Ah, France.  How I love this beautiful country! 

And if you’re reading this, you probably do too.

I’ve traveled across France over a half-dozen times, and yet it is always at the top of my travel bucket list.

If you can’t be in France, these France quotes will have you fondly remembering your last trip — or dreaming about your next one!

Best of all, you don’t have to worry about translating, as all of these are quotes about France in English!

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Best Quotes about France

Famous France quotes

There is certainly no shortage of famous quotes about France.  Or quotes about France from famous people! 

I’ve hand-selected some of the best French quotes from world leaders, famous military men, literary giants, and pop culture icons.

1. “How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?” ~ Charles de Gaulle 

(I think this has to be my favorite quote about France.  And he might even be lowballing the number of kinds of cheese.  Some estimates put it at over 1000!)

2. “Every man has two countries: his own and France.” ~ John F. Kennedy

3. “Remember gentlemen, it’s not just France we’re fighting for, it’s Champagne!”  ~ Winston Churchill

4. “France has lost the battle, but she has not lost the war.” ~ Charles de Gaulle

5. “French people speak quickly but act slowly.” ~ Voltaire

6. “I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me.” ~ George S. Patton

7. “In France, history is paralyzing.” ~ Jean Paul Gaultier

8. “France is a country that loves to change government as long as it is always the same.” ~ Honoré de Balzac

9. “The South of France is a sunny place for shady people.”  ~ Somerset Maugham

10. “France has more need of me than I have need of France.” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

11. “I like France, where everybody thinks he’s Napoleon.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald   

Funny quotes about France

It seems like everyone is a comedian when it comes to France.

(Although I find that there is typically a nugget of truth that makes any joke funny.)

Here are some of my favorite humorous France quotes.  I’ll bet you can’t make it through this list without cracking a smile!

12. “Never doubt the courage of the French. They were the ones who discovered that snails are edible.” ~ Doug Larson

13. “Every year there’s a jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Getting on the jury is very competitive in France. Not because the French love cinema, but because they love to judge.” ~ Craig Ferguson 

14. “France has neither winter nor summer nor morals—apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.”  ~ Mark Twain

15. “Maybe it can’t be proven statistically, but it’s a safe bet that any given American on his or her first trip to France will at some point remark with indignation that he or she had thought the French were supposed to be so polite.” ~ Jack Iams

16. “French people are so proud of their wine, they named many French cities after the names of Grand Cru vintage wine.” ~ Oscar Wilde

17. “Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion.” ~ Norman Schwarzkopf

18. “France is a paradise inhabited by people who believe they are in hell.” ~ Sylvain Tesson

19. “France is the only country where the money falls apart and you can’t tear the toilet paper.” ~ Billy Wilder

20. “Between France and England, the best thing is the English Channel.” ~ Douglas Jerrold   

21. “The French will tell you that ‘le client est roi’. The customer is king. But we all know what they did to their kings” ~ Stephen Clarke

Inspiring quotes about France

There’s a reason that France is such a popular travel destination.  

France is renowned for many things, including its romance, its cuisine, its wine, and its way of life.

Here are a few of my favorite inspirational France quotes that will make you feel nostalgic for la belle France!

22. “France is great because she is France.” ~ Victor Hugo

23. “We love to slow down, and France requires us to do so. In France, we find what we are missing.” ~ Marcia DeSanctis

24. “I do not believe there is another city on earth so beautiful as Paris nor another people with such an appreciation of the beautiful as the French.”  ~ Edward Hopper

25. “But of Paris, it can be said that the right bank of the Seine belongs to the world and the left bank to France.” ~ Mary Butts

26. “France is to me the heroine in the romance of all the nations of all time.” ~ William Arthur Sirmo

27. “So, ask the traveled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on earth would you rather live? — Certainly, in my own, where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

28. “France cannot be France without greatness.” ~ Charles de Gaulle

29. “France has the only two things toward which we drift as we grow older – intelligence and good manners.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

30. “France is beautiful. I stood at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower today and looked up at it. There are very few times in my life I’ve felt so small.” ~ Leisa Rayven

31. “The French air cleans up the brain and does good – a world of good.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh

32. “The French Riviera is the greenhouse where the roots grow. Paris is the shop where the flowers are sold.” ~ Jean Cocteau

Quotes about the French language

OK, most of these are rather humorous saying and observations about the French language. 

I could have put them in the ‘funny French quotes’ section, but I think they merited their own category.

I personally love the beauty of the language (although I can read it better than I can speak it). 

33. “Boy, those French. They have a different word for everything.”~ Steve Martin

34. “I love the French language… it’s a delightful language, especially to curse with. It’s like whopping your ass with silk.” ~ Oscar Wilde

35. “In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.” ~ Mark Twain

36. “French is the language that turns dirt into romance.” ~ Stephen King

37. “Occasionally, merely for the pleasure of being cruel, we put unoffending Frenchmen on the rack with questions framed in the incomprehensible jargon of their native language, and while they writhed, we impaled them, we peppered them, we scarified them, with their own vile verbs and participles.” ~ Mark Twain

38. “If the French were really intelligent, they’d speak English.” ~ Wilfrid Sheed

39. “The thing that staggers you when you first come to France is the fact that all the French speak French—even the children.” ~ Olivia de Havilland

40. “English people don’t have very good diction.  In France you have to pronounce very particularly and clearly, and learning French at an early age helped me enormously” ~ Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh’s quote really strikes a chord for me.  I’ve spent many years studying the French language – several courses of high school French, as well as 1:1 French lessons.  Fortunately, I can usually get my meaning understood in France.

But Chris took Spanish in high school and then French in college, and the nuances of French are beyond him. 

I amuse myself by speaking two similar French words with slightly different pronunciations (and very different meanings).  Chris will always protest “Those sound *exactly* the same!”.

Quotes about life in France

There is something quintessentially different about French daily life.  And even when you just visit France, you pick up on it.

Something about traveling in France makes you want to pay more attention to the little joys in life.  It could be walking along the Seine or enjoying a warm pain au chocolat from the corner bakery.

(Although it does take a bit of adjustment to those long leisurely French meals!  I’m so used to American waiters trying to scoot you out of the restaurant to free up a table.)

41. “I have been in Paris for almost a week and I have not heard anyone say calories, or cholesterol, or even arterial plaque. The French do not season their food with regret.” ~ Mary-Lou Weisman

42. “It’s a wonderful way to live, and not a bad way to go, either. The average Frenchman is still smiling three months after he’s dead.” ~ Bob Hope

43. “I had come to the conclusion that I must really be French, only no one had ever informed me of this fact. I loved the people, the food, the lay of the land, the civilized atmosphere, and the generous pace of life.” ~ Julia Child

44. “The flavors melted in my mouth- warm chocolate and melted butter and the flaky sweet crust. This was what I loved about France. A keen appreciation for the simplicity and sweetness of life. The French seemed to savor their minutes along with their food.” ~ Melanie Dobson

45. “In France we have a saying, ‘Joie de vivre,’ which actually doesn’t exist in the English language. It means looking at your life as something that is to be taken with great pleasure and enjoy it.” ~ Mireille Guiliano

46. “It is true that in France, women put on less things. If they have a necklace, they don’t put on earrings; if they have nail polish, they don’t put on all their rings and all their bracelets.” ~ Ines de La Fressange

47. “People wonder why so many writers come to live in Paris. I’ve been living ten years in Paris and the answer seems simple to me: because it’s the best place to pick ideas. Just like Italy, Spain.. or Iran are the best places to pick saffron. If you want to pick opium poppies you go to Burma or South-East Asia. And if you want to pick novel ideas, you go to Paris.” ~ Roman Payne

48. “I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.” ~ Josephine Baker

49. “In France you cannot not have lunch. If you stopped the French from having lunch, you will have a second revolution, I can tell you this. Not going to work – it is part of the French privilege.” ~ Christian Louboutin

50. “France is like a maddening, moody lover who inspires emotional highs and lows. One minute it fills you with a rush of passion, the next you’re full of fury, itching to smack the mouth of some sneering shopkeeper or smug civil servant. Yes, it’s a love-hate relationship.” ~ Sarah Turnbull

Quotes about French food and cuisine

France is famous for many things, but foremost it is known for its food and wine.

So it should come as no surprise that there are plenty of excellent quotes about food in France – and how to cook it.

It should also come as no surprise that many of these French food quotes come from chef Julia Child.  I still remember watching her cooking shows on TV and how she shared her love of French cuisine.

Bon Appetit!

51. “The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken.” ~ Julia Child

52. “Cook with butter in the North, olive oil in the South.” ~ Alain Bremond-Torrent

53. “I still feel that French cooking is the most important in the world, one of the few that has rules. If you follow the rules, you can do pretty well.” ~ Julia Child

54. “No matter what their background, the southern French are fascinated by food.” ~ Peter Mayle

55. “Everything ends this way in France – everything. Weddings, christenings, duels, burials, swindlings, diplomatic affairs – everything is a pretext for a good dinner,” ~ Jean Anouilh, Cecile

56. “In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.”  ~ Julia Child

57. “It was in France that I first learned about food. And that even the selection of a perfect pear, a ripe piece of Brie, the freshest butter, the highest quality cream were as important as how the dish you were going to be served was actually cooked.” ~ Robert Carrier

58. “The French: a people who have used their sophisticated culture and beautiful language to bequeath to the world the sliced potato.” ~ Bauvard

59. “If the bible had been written by a Frenchman, there would have been a lot more recipes.” ~ Stephen Clarke

60. “God, it’s good to be eating in France again.” ~ Jack Iams

Quotes about French people and French culture

The French people have a reputation for many things, some good – and some not as good.

Many people complain about the rudeness of French people.  But my experiences in my travels across France is that most French are quite nice if you treat them politely.   (Ok, 95% of them..)

(And speaking a little bit of French goes a long way, so brush up on a few key phrases before you go.  And always say ‘Bonjour!’)

61. “Far be it from a French man to interfere with love.” ~ E.A. Bucchianeri  (this is one of the best French quotes about love!)

62. “I cannot prevent the French from being French.” ~ Charles de Gaulle

63. “God invented Parisians so foreigners wouldn’t understand anything about French people.” ~ Alexandre Dumas

64. “France is the most civilized country in the world and doesn’t care who knows it.” ~ John Gunther

65. “The French are romantics, but they’re also realists.” ~ Mindy, in Emily in Paris

66. “I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.” ~ Josephine Baker

67. “Every Frenchman wants to enjoy one or more privileges; that’s the way he shows his passion for equality.” ~ Charles de Gaulle

68. “France would be a great place if there were no French in it.”  — Anonymous

69. “The French believe that kids feel confident when they’re able to do things for themselves, and do those things well. After children have learned to talk, adults don’t praise them for saying just anything. They praise them for saying interesting things, and for speaking well.”  ~ Pamela Druckerman

70. “Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you’ll have a marvelous time!”  ~ Julia Child

France Travel Quotes

Did you know that the country of France is smaller than the state of Texas? And yet there is such an incredible variety of experiences to be had throughout France.

• I’ve walked along the banks of the Seine, marveled at the art in the Louvre, and explored the top sights in Paris. 
• I’ve seen the Bayeux tapestry and visited the beaches of Normandy.
• I’ve taken a hot-air balloon flight over châteaux in the Loire Valley.
• I’ve explored Roman ruins in Nîmes, Arles, and historic Old Lyon.
• I’ve dipped my toes in the Mediterranean and strolled along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

And yet I’ve only scratched the surface of the diverse experiences to be had in France!

These quotes about France travel should rev up your vacation planning:

71. “France is Europe’s most diverse, tasty, and exciting country to explore. It’s a cultural bouillabaisse that surprises travelers with its varied, complex flavors.” ~Rick Steves

72. I love France. It’s got the sun down at the bottom, the alps for skiing, and all that wine and food.” ~ Paul Hollywood

73.  “I love as you come into Paris, you’ve got the Arch de Triomphe and all that crazy traffic. Then I love the drive from Paris down to Antibes and you veer off east in through the Alps and you come into the south of France on the mountain road as opposed to the freeway.” ~ Luke Goss

74. “I did quite enjoy the days when one went for a beer at one’s local in Paris and woke up in Corsica.” ~ Peter O’Toole

75. “It’s really a drag to sit around when you’re old, and think, ‘Ah, gee, I never went to France.’ Go to France. Life is very short; you’ve got to pack it all in there.” ~ Grace Slick

76. “From the bustling city of Paris, the beautiful lavender fields of Provence, to the stunning beaches of the French Rivera, I am still convinced that nothing is as beautiful and charming as France.” ~ Unknown

Best Paris Quotes

Of course, we can’t talk about the best France quotes without adding in a few of the best quotes about Paris! 

It’s the heart – and capital – of France.  The City of Light holds a special place in my memories (and my vacation planning). There are so many reasons to visit Paris!

Here are just a few of my favorite quotes about Paris.  If you love Paris as much as I do, you’ll want to read this post with over 100 top Paris quotes.

77. “Just add three letters to Paris, and you have paradise.” ~ Jules Renard

78. “Everyone remembers their first taste of Paris.” ~ Kristin Hannah

79. “Paris is always a good idea.” ~ Audrey Hepburn, Sabrina

80. “I didn’t choose Paris. I like to think that the city chose me.” ~ Charlotte Le Bon

81. “A bad day in Paris is still a good day anywhere else.” ~ Unknown

82. “We’ll always have Paris.” ~ Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca

83. “Though you may leave Paris, Paris never really leaves you.”    ~ Janice Macleod

84. “You’ll have to fall in love at least once in your life, or Paris has failed to rub off on you.”     ~ E.A. Bucchianeri

85. “Paris is a divine section of eternity.” ~ E. E. Cummings

86. “Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. It brings tears to your eyes.”    ~ Lee Radziwill

87. “That Paris exists and anyone could choose to live anywhere else in the world will always be a mystery to me.”    ~ Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris

88. “I ought to be jealous of the tower. She is more famous than I am.”     ~ Gustave Eiffel

Quotes about Lyon

Although Paris is my favorite city in France, Lyon comes in a close second.  I’d definitely say Lyon is worth visiting!

Lyon is known as the gastronomic capital of France, so you know you’ll be eating well.  I’ll even go so far as to say that the best pastries I’ve eaten in France were in Lyon!

While you’ll certainly want to sample Lyon’s delicious dishes, the city isn’t *just* known for its food.

I love exploring Lyon’s top sights, from the mysterious traboules to its fabulous hilltop basilica and incredible trompe-l’oeil murals like Le Mur des Canuts.

89. “Lyon is a city that makes you hungry.” ~ Paul Bocuse

90. “Lyon is unusual and seems to be exceptionally incompetent at publicizing itself. In fact, it doesn’t want visitors. It fears discovery.” ~ Bill Buford

91. “The convergence of the Rhone and Saone. Paul Bocuse. The birthplace of cinema. Chateauneuf-du-Pape just a few miles down the road. It does not get much better than Lyon.” ~ Leonard Slatkin

92. “Lyon is a city watered by three great rivers: the Rhône, the Saône and the Beaujolais!” ~  Léon Daudet

93. “There is, in Lyon, an Italian, ocher, sienna side. It’s a city that has a dark, mysterious, secret side.” ~ Bertrand Tavernier

Quotes about the South of France

The south of France is a whole category unto itself!  Artists such as Vincent Van Gogh have flocked here, inspired by the quality of the light.

We’ve all seen the rows of vibrant lavender in the fields of Provence.

And whether you prefer Nice or Marseille, the southern coast of France is a destination — and way of life — that must be experienced.

94. “When the Good Lord begins to doubt the world, he remembers that he created Provence.” ~ Frederic Mistral

95. “You were never told that Saint-Tropez is paradise?” ~ Karl Lagerfeld

96. “We have a saying in Marseilles: a man in no hurry gets nowhere fast. I have been in no hurry for eight years.” ~ Gregory David Roberts

97. “The South of France is one of my favorite places in the world.” ~ M. Ward

98. “I think you get better at staring into space. Especially living in the South of France.” ~ Adrian Lyne

99. “The air in Provence is impregnated with the aroma of garlic, which makes it very healthful to breathe.” ~ Alexandre Dumas

100. “I am working with the enthusiasm of a man from Marseilles eating bouillabaisse, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to you because I am busy painting huge sunflowers.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh

101. “The Mediterranean is in my DNA. I’m fine inland for about a week, but then I yearn for a limitless view of the sea, for the colours and smells of the Italian and French Riviera.” ~ Alain Ducasse