1990 in France

Incumbents

• President: François Mitterrand
• Prime Minister: Michel Rocard

  Events

• 15 May – Launch of the Renault Clio supermini, which will eventually replace the Renault 5.
• 3 June – 11 people die in a coach accident on the A6 autoroute at Joigny when a tyre blew out in excess of 78 mph.
• 13 July – Loi Gayssot enacted, prohibiting Holocaust denial.
• 14 July – Jean-Michel Jarre performs Paris La Défense – Une Ville En Concert before a world record audience of 2.5 million people.
• December – Espace Euro Disney, an information hub on the under construction Euro Disney resort near Paris, is opened to the public.
• 1 December – Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed.

  Arts and literature

Sport

• 30 June – Tour de France begins.
• 8 July – French Grand Prix won by Alain Prost.
• 22 July – Tour de France ends, won by Greg LeMond of the United States.

  Births

• 10 January – Richard Philippe, motor racing driver.
• 22 January – Alizé Cornet, tennis player.
• 15 February – Charles Pic, motor racing driver.
• 20 May – Adeline Canac, pair skater.
• 4 June – Tippi Degré, animal handler.
• 12 June — Jérôme Jarre, vine star.
• 21 October – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, chess grandmaster.
• 22 December – Jean-Baptiste Maunier, actor and singer.

  Deaths

January to March

• 10 January – Juliet Berto, actress.
• 16 January – Robert Lamartine, soccer player.
• 17 January – Charles Hernu, politician and Minister.
• 5 February – Père Marie-Benoît, friar who helped smuggle Jews to safety from Nazi-occupied Southern France.
• 5 February – Joseph Mauclair, cyclist.
• 15 February – Michel Drach, film director, writer, producer and actor.
• 7 March – Claude Arrieu, composer.
• 12 March – Philippe Soupault, poet, novelist, critic and political activist.
• 17 March – Capucine, actress.
• 20 March – Maurice Cloche, film director, screenwriter and film producer.

  April to June

• 21 April – Romain de Tirtoff, artist and designer.
• 30 June – Jacques Lob, comic book creator.

  July to September

• 18 July – Yves Chaland, cartoonist.
• 23 July – Pierre Gandon, illustrator and engraver of postage stamps.
• 25 July – Jean Fourastié, economist.
• 1 August – Michel Arnaud, General.
• 6 August – Jacques Soustelle, anthropologist.
• 15 August – Louis Vola, double bass player.
• 20 August – Maurice Gendron, cellist and teacher.
• 30 September – Michel Leiris, surrealist writer and ethnographer.

  October to December

• 20 October – Colette Audry, novelist, screenwriter and critic.
• 22 October – Louis Althusser, Marxist philosopher.
• 27 October – Jacques Demy, film director.
• October – Alfred Sauvy, demographer, anthropologist and historian.
• 5 November – Raymond Oliver, chef and restaurateur.
• 17 November – Pierre Braunberger, producer and actor.
• 1 December – Simone Melchior, wife and business partner of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
• 18 December – Paul Tortelier, cellist and composer.
• 19 December – Edmond Delfour, international soccer player, manager.
• 23 December – Serge Danot, animator.
• 23 December – Pierre Gripari, writer.

  Full date unknown

• Jacques-Laurent Bost, journalist.
• Daniel du Janerand, painter.
• Marcel Légaut, philosopher and mathematician.
• Claude Ponsard, economist.