1949 in France

Incumbents

• President: Vincent Auriol
• President of the Council of Ministers: Henri Queuille, Georges Bidault

  Events

• 19-25 August - 1949 Landes forest fire: a wildfire burns 50.000 ha of forest land and kills 82.
• 27 October - Air France Flight 009 flying from Paris Orly Airport to New York crashes on São Miguel Island in the Azores and kills all 48 on board, including violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan.
• Simone de Beauvoir publishes her book The Second Sex, an extremely influential work for second-wave feminism, in Paris.

  Sports

• 30 June - Tour de France begins
• 21 July - Tour de France ends, won by Fausto Coppi of Italy

  Births

• 18 January — Philippe Starck, designer
• 6 February — Olivier Chevallier, motor cycle racer
• 10 February — Maxime Le Forestier, singer
• 2 March — Isabelle Mir, Alphine skier
• 22 March — Fanny Ardant, actress
• 1 April — Gérard Mestrallet, businessman
• 16 April — Claude Papi, soccer player
• 24 April — Véronique Sanson, singer-songwriter
• 27 April — Didier Daeninckx, author and politician
• 16 May — Gilles Bertould, athlete
• 13 June — Thierry Sabine, motor cycle racer
• 17 June — Serge Vinçon, politician
• 2 July — Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, actor
• 13 August — Philippe Petit, high-wire artist
• 22 October — Arsène Wenger, soccer manager
• 25 October — Alain Escoffier, anti-communist activist, self-immolated
• 13 November — Gérard Lelièvre, racewalker

  Full date unknown

• Jean-Claude Irvoas, murder victim

  Deaths

• 28 January - Jean-Pierre Wimille, motor racing driver and resistance member
• 16 February - Roger François, weightlifter
• 4 June - Maurice Blondel, philosopher
• 24 September - Pierre de Bréville, composer
• 27 October - Marcel Cerdan, boxer
• 27 October - Ginette Neveu, violinist