1901 in France

Decades:	1880s; 1890s; 1900s; 1910s; 1920s;
See also:	Other events of 1901; History of France • Timeline • Years

Events from the year 1901 in France.

Incumbents

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

17 March – A showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.

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)
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 – 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)
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 – 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)

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)