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French Roman Catholics

  • Paul CézannePaul Cézanne was born on the 19th of January 1839 at 28 rue de l'Opéra in Aix-en-Provence, a city he would never truly leave behind.
  • NapoleonNapoleon Bonaparte was born Napoleone di Buonaparte on the 15th of August 1769, on the island of Corsica, to a family of Italian origin.
  • Claude of FranceClaude of France was born on the 13th of October 1499 in Romorantin-Lanthenay, and she entered a world already thick with political calculation.
  • Charles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire was born in Paris on the 9th of April 1821, into a city that would both inspire and consume him. His father was a senior civil servant and…
  • MontesquieuMontesquieu, born Charles Louis de Secondat on the 18th of January 1689, grew up in a château 25 kilometres south of Bordeaux, in southwest France.
  • Jean RacineJean Racine was born on the 22nd of December 1639 in La Ferté-Milon, a small town in the province of Picardy in northern France, and he would die sixty years…
  • Louis XIVLouis XIV ruled France for 72 years and 110 days, the longest reign of any sovereign monarch in history. He came to the throne on the 14th of May 1643, a boy…
  • Napoleon IIINapoleon III was born in the Tuileries Palace in Paris on the night of the 19th-the 20th of April 1808 - the first Bonaparte prince born after the…
  • Louis XVIIILouis XVIII spent twenty-three years as a king without a kingdom. Born on the 17th of November 1755 at the Palace of Versailles, he outlasted the Revolution…
  • Francis I of FranceFrancis I of France was born on the 12th of September 1494, in a château in the town of Cognac, and from the moment he arrived, his path to the throne was…
  • Francis II of FranceOn the 10th of July 1559, a fifteen-year-old boy named Francis II became king of France after his father Henry II died in a jousting accident.
  • Philip II of FrancePhilip II of France was born on the 21st of August 1165 in Gonesse, the only son of King Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne.
  • Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle was born on the 22nd of November 1890 in Lille, the third of five children in a devoutly Catholic, conservative, and monarchist household.
  • Jacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach died on the 5th of October 1880, just months before the premiere of the opera he had spent years trying to finish.
  • Henry II of FranceHenry II of France died from a splinter of wood. On the 30th of June 1559, a jousting tournament was held near the Place des Vosges to celebrate a hard-won…
  • Tony ParkerWilliam Anthony Parker Jr. arrived in the world on the 17th of May 1982, inside a hospital in Bruges, Belgium. His father Tony Parker Sr.
  • Louis BonaparteLouis Bonaparte entered the world on the 2nd of September 1778 in Ajaccio, Corsica. This island had been conquered by France less than a decade before his…
  • Catherine de' MediciCatherine de' Medici was born on the 13th of April 1519 in Florence, and within a month both her parents were dead. Her mother Madeleine died of puerperal…
  • Marguerite de NavarreMarguerite de Navarre entered the world on the 11th of April 1492 in Angoulême, France. Her mother Louise of Savoy was only nineteen years old when she…
  • Louis PasteurOn the 6th of July 1885, Louis Pasteur faced a choice that could have ended in his prosecution. A 9-year-old boy named Joseph Meister had been badly mauled…
  • Jean CocteauJean Cocteau called himself a poet, and only a poet, even after he had written novels, staged plays, drawn erotica, and directed films that critics still…
  • Joachim MuratJoachim Murat, born on the 25th of March 1767 in a small town in southwestern France, died facing a firing squad on the 13th of October 1815 in Pizzo Calabro.
  • Joseph BonaparteJoseph Bonaparte arrived in the United States in the summer of 1815, hiding aboard a merchant vessel called the Commerce under the false name M. Bouchard.
  • Joséphine de Beauharnais"France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Joséphine." These were the last words Napoleon spoke on his deathbed at Saint Helena.
  • Jules RimetJules Rimet crossed the Atlantic in 1930 carrying a trophy in his bag. No guards, no ceremony; just a French football administrator on a steamship called the…
  • Antoine LavoisierOn the 8th of May 1794, in Paris, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was guillotined alongside 27 co-defendants, at the age of 50.
  • Robert BressonJean-Luc Godard once wrote of one man, "He is the French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music." The man Godard meant was…
  • Napoleon IINapoleon II was Emperor of the French for exactly two days. He never sat on the throne. He never held a scepter. He never gave an order that anyone was bound…
  • Louis AlthusserLouis Althusser was born on the 16th of October 1918 in Birmendreïs, a town near Algiers in French Algeria, and he died on the 22nd of October 1990 in a…
  • Carlo BuonaparteCarlo Maria Buonaparte was born on the 27th of March 1746 in Ajaccio, Corsica, at a moment when the island was still nominally governed by the Republic of…
  • Louis Philippe ILouis Philippe I stepped onto the throne of France in August 1830 having already lived more lives than most kings ever get.
  • Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis de Tocqueville sailed to the United States in 1831 on a narrow assignment. The July Monarchy had sent him to examine American prisons and…
  • Éric RohmerÉric Rohmer wore a false moustache to the New York premiere of one of his films. The man who would be called "the most durable filmmaker of the French New…
  • Désirée ClaryDésirée Clary entered the world on the 8th of November 1777 in Marseille, France. Her father François Clary operated a wealthy silk manufacturing business…
  • Georges Ernest BoulangerGeorges Ernest Boulanger was born on the 29th of April 1837 in Rennes, Brittany. He entered the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1855 and graduated to join the…
  • Jean-Jacques-Régis de CambacérèsJean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès entered the world on the 18th of October 1753 in Montpellier. He was born into a family of legal nobility, though his…
  • Gustave DoréGustave Doré created over 10,000 illustrations across his lifetime, and at the peak of his career he kept some 40 block-cutters employed just to translate…
  • Lucien BonaparteLucien Bonaparte entered the world in Ajaccio, Corsica, on the 21st of May 1775. He was the third surviving son of Carlo Bonaparte and Letizia Ramolino.
  • Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-PérigordCharles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born on the 2nd of February 1754, and he died on the 17th of May 1838, having served every major French government…
  • Arsène WengerArsène Wenger was born on the 22nd of October 1949 in Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France, the youngest of three children.