2008 in France

Incumbents

• President: Nicolas Sarkozy
• Prime Minister: François Fillon

  Events

• 1 January – Smoking banned in all public places in France.
• 2 February – Wedding of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni.
• 9 and 16 March – Cantonal elections held.
• 12 March – Lazare Ponticelli, the country's last surviving First World War veteran, dies at the age of 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 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 .
• 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

  Births

Deaths

January

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

  February

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

  March

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

  April

• 9 April – Jacques Morel, actor.
• 11 April – Claude Abbes, international soccer player.
• 17 April – Aimé Césaire, poet, author and politician.
• 19 April – Germaine Tillion, anthropologist.
• 20 April – Farid Chopel, actor, comedian and singer.
• 23 April – Jean-Daniel Cadinot, film director and producer.

  May

• 9 May – Pascal Sevran, TV presenter and author.
• 10 May – Paul Haeberlin, chef and restaurateur.

  June

• 1 June – Yves Saint Laurent, fashion designer.
• 6 June – Paul Tessier, surgeon.
• 11 June – Jean Desailly, actor.
• 18 June – Jean Delannoy, actor, screenwriter and film director.
• 26 June – Lilyan Chauvin, actress and writer.
• 27 June – Frédéric Botton, lyricist and composer.
• 27 June – Raymond Lefèvre, orchestra leader, arranger and composer.

  July

• 10 July – Bernard Cahier, Formula One photo-journalist.
• 28 July – Pierre Berès, bookseller and antiquarian book collector.

  August

September

October

• 13 October – Guillaume Depardieu Actor
• 20 October – Soeur Emmanuelle

  November

• 1 November – Jacques Lunis, athlete.

  December

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