2008 in France

1 January – Smoking banned in all public places (including bars and restaurants) in France.
2 February – Wedding of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni.^[1]
9 and 16 March – Cantonal elections held.^[2]
12 March – Lazare Ponticelli, the country's last surviving First World War veteran, dies aged 110 – eight months before the 90th anniversary of the Armistice.
April – The Citroën C5 sedan is launched, whilst the station wagon was launched in May.
1 April – 2008 French mistaken virginity case
1 July – France assumes the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
2 July – Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC by Colombian security forces.
13 July – First meeting of Mediterranean Union, in Paris
10 September – Activation of Large Hadron Collider, localized between France and Switzerland
4 October – 50th Anniversary of the French Constitution of 1958 (French Fifth Republic).
27 November – XL Airways Germany Flight 888T crashed on a Mediterranean Sea, near Canet-en-Roussillon around Perpignan, killed seven people.
October : Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier – the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
December: – First album of the series Je n'aime pas le classique, mais ça j'aime bien! was released
Undated
- Black music, des chaînes de fer aux chaînes d'or documentary film is released.^[3]
- Yeallow, French indie rock band from Strasbourg is formed.

3 January – Henri Chopin, avant-garde poet and musician (born 1922).
5 January – Raymond Forni, Socialist politician (born 1941).
5 January – Louis Hon, soccer player (born 1924).
7 January – Maryvonne Dupureur, Olympic athlete (born 1937).
7 January – Marcel Mouly, artist (born 1918).
7 January – Jean-Claude Vrinat, restaurateur (born 1936).
12 January – Louis Alexandre Raimon, hair stylist (born 1922).
16 January – Raymond Cambefort, one of the last three fully verified World War I veterans living in France (born 1900).
16 January – Pierre Lambert, Trotskyist leader (born 1920).
17 January – Carlos, singer, entertainer and actor (born 1943).
17 January – Madeleine Milhaud, actress (born 1902).
20 January – Louis de Cazenave, at the time of his death, the oldest French poilu still alive (born 1897).
29 January – Philippe Khorsand, actor (born 1948).

2 February – Roger Testu, cartoonist (born 1913).
6 February – Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec, writer and Grand Druid of Brittany (born 1929).
12 February – Jean Prouff, soccer player and manager (born 1919).
13 February – Henri Salvador, singer (born 1917).
13 February – Roger Voisin, trumpeter (born 1918).
18 February – Alain Robbe-Grillet, writer and filmmaker (born 1922).
19 February – Jean-Michel Bertrand, politician (born 1943).
28 February – Gérard Calvet, Roman Catholic abbot (born 1927).

12 March – Lazare Ponticelli, last surviving official French veteran of the First World War (born 1897).
17 March – Roland Arnall, businessman and diplomat in the United States (born 1939).
19 March – Chantal Sébire, teacher and euthanasia campaigner (born 1955).
25 March – Thierry Gilardi, football and rugby commentator (born 1958).
26 March – Christian Bergelin, politician (born 1945).
27 March – Jean-Marie Balestre, sports executive (born 1921).
30 March – Marie-Françoise Audollent, actress (born 1943).

17 September – Patrick Alexandroni, actor, rapper, and television producer (born 1962)^[4]

Incumbents