1879 in France

Incumbents

• President: Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta Jules Grévy
• President of the Council of Ministers:
• * until 4 February: Jules Armand Dufaure
• * 4 February-28 December: William Waddington
• * starting 28 December: Charles de Freycinet

  Events

• 1 June – Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial, great-nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, Bonapartist Pretender to the throne, dies in Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War.
• "La Marseillaise" is restored as the French national anthem.
• Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal in Hauterives.

  Births

• 22 January – Francis Picabia, painter and poet
• 4 February – Jacques Copeau, journalist, actor, playwright, director, teacher
• 23 March – René Jeannel, entomologist
• 20 April – Paul Poiret, fashion designer
• 5 June – René Pottier, cyclist, winner of 1906 Tour de France
• 1 July – Léon Jouhaux, trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951
• 13 July – Eugène Freyssinet, structural and civil engineer
• 11 September – Louis Coatalen, automobile engineer and racing driver
• 23 September – Charles Camoin, painter
• 21 October – Joseph Canteloube, composer
• 17 December – Jean-Marie Charles Abrial, Admiral and Minister
• 31 December – Joseph Darnand, Bishop

  Deaths

• 10 February – Honoré Daumier, printmaker, caricaturist, painter and sculptor
• 25 February – Jean-Baptiste Glaire, Roman Catholic priest and Hebrew and Biblical scholar
• 2 March – Jules Bastide, publicist
• 30 March – Thomas Couture, painter and teacher
• 16 April - Bernadette Soubirous, nun and visionary of Lourdes apparitions
• 20 May – Pierre-Jules Mêne, sculptor
• 29 May – Pierre Adolphe Piorry, physician
• 1 June – Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial, only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France and his Empress consort Eugénie de Montijo
• 26 August – Charles Marie Edouard Chassaignac, physician
• 6 September – Amédée de Noé, caricaturist and lithographer
• 17 September – Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, architect and theorist
• 12 November – Jean-Charles Chenu, physician and naturalist
• 18 November
• * Michel Chevalier, engineer, statesman and economist
• * André Giroux, photographer and painter
• 19 November – Jean-Joseph Gaume, Roman Catholic theologian and author
• 29 December – Jean Étienne Bercé, entomologist