100 Quotes About France About Travel, Paris, Culture, and Movies

Let’s discover the best quotes about France! 

The French had quite a few great minds. To name a few, I would list Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, Diderot, and many more that may or may not be known from my list of the best quotes about France.

Best Quotes About France in English

Ready for some inspiration? I hope so, because this is all about it. Go, France! And enjoy this best quotes about France.

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast,” – Ernest Hemingway’

“I had come to the conclusion that I must really be French, only no one had ever informed me of this fact. I loved the people, the food, the lay of the land, the civilized atmosphere, and the generous pace of life.””- Julia Child

“France cannot be France without greatness.” – Charles de Gaulle 

“Let them eat cake.” – Marie Antoinette

“The King of Prussia is innately a bad neighbor, but the English will also always be bad neighbors to France, and the sea has never prevented them from doing her great mischief.” – Marie Antoinette 

“Breathe Paris Or Breathe in Paris, it preserves the soul.”– Victor Hugo

“As an adolescent I was convinced that France would have to go through gigantic trials, that the interest of life consisted in one day rendering her some signal service and that I would have the occasion to do so.” – Charles de Gaulle 

“I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I pardon those who have occasioned my death, and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.” The Famous Last words of Louis XVI

“I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality, and fraternity.” – Josephine Baker

“Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you’ll have a marvelous time!” -julia child 

“France is great because she is France.” – Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French.” – Charles de Gaulle

“When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.” – Charles de Gaulle 

“The scholar generalizes, the artist individualizes.” – Jules Renard

“The best thing I know between France and England is the sea.” – Douglas William Jerrold

funny quotes about France

“France has neither winter nor summer nor morals–apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.” – Mark Twain

“Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you’ll have a marvelous time!” – Julia Child

“How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?” – Charles de Gaulle

“The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken.”- Julia Child

“The French (and Europeans in general) place a high value on speaking quietly in restaurants and on trains.” – Rick Steves

In France, you cannot not have lunch. If you stopped the French from having lunch, you will have a second revolution, I can tell you this. Not going to work – it is part of the French privilege. Christian Louboutin

“Some people are so fond of ill luck that they run halfway to meet it.” – Douglas William Jerrold

“Mona Lisa is the only beauty who went through history and retained her reputation.” – Will Rogers

“I’d like to combine melancholy and sunshine. There’s a sadness in Provence which no one has expressed… I’d like to put reason in the grass and tears in the sky, like Poussin.” – Paul Cezanne

“If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” – Anatole France

france travel quotes

Have you ever considered what the most prominent travel quotes about France are? Whether it is a recent quote or one from a century ago. If so that’s good because there are a lot of quotes about France!

“The spectacle of this lovely nation, with its great agricultural wealth and its cultural riches, continually stepping on its own toes, made me wonder if France suffered a kind of national neurosis.” – Julia Child

“It’s a wonderful way to live, and not a bad way to go, either. The average Frenchman is still smiling three months after he’s dead.” – Bob Hope

“The Mona Lisa, to me, is the greatest emotional painting ever done. The way the smile flickers makes it a work of both art and science, because Leonardo understood optics, and the muscles of the lips, and how light strikes the eye – all of it goes into making the Mona Lisa’s smile so mysterious and elusive.” – Walter Isaacson

“France is like a maddening, moody lover who inspires emotional highs and lows. One minute it fills you with a rush of passion, the next you’re full of fury, itching to smack the mouth of some sneering shopkeeper or smug civil servant. Yes, it’s a love-hate relationship.” – Sarah Turnbull

“The French believe that kids feel confident when they’re able to do things for themselves, and do those things well. After children have learned to talk, adults don’t praise them for saying just anything. They praise them for saying interesting things, and for speaking well.” – Pamela Druckerman

“France is Europe’s most diverse, tasty, and exciting country to explore. It’s a cultural bouillabaisse that surprises travelers with its varied, complex flavors.”- Rick Steves

“Every year there’s a jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Getting on the jury is very competitive in France. Not because the French love cinema, but because they love to judge.” – Craig Ferguson

“For example, in Paris, if one desires to buy something, you enter the store and say “Good morning, sir” or “madam,” depending on what is appropriate, you wait until you are greeted, you make polite chitchat about the weather or some such, and when the salesperson asks what they can do for you, then and only then do you bring up the vulgar business of the transaction you require.” – Craig Ferguson

“My first encounter with a baguette, torn still warm from its paper sheathing, shattered and sighed on contact. The sound stopped me in my tracks, the way a crackling branch gives deer pause; that’s what good crust does. Once I began to chew, the flavor unfolded, deep with yeast and salt, the warm humidity of the tender crumb almost breathing against my lips.” – Sasha Martin

“France is the most civilized country in the world and doesn’t care who knows it.” – John Gunther

“Every man has two countries: his own and France.” – Henri de Bornier’s

One fun fact about this French saying, is that this French phrase is often commonly misattributed to John F. Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson.

“The French have a penchant for absolutism, for thinking that things are all one way or all another, which is why their politics are marked by a general inability to compromise and why they tend to hold their personal opinions until the bitter end, even after they have clearly lost an argument.” – Mark Zero

“Other countries drink to get drunk, and this is accepted by everyone; in France, drunkenness is a consequence, never an intention. A drink is felt as the spinning out of a pleasure, not as the necessary cause of an effect which is sought: wine is not only a philtre, it is also the leisurely act of drinking.” – Roland Barthes

“It’s really a drag to sit around when you’re old, and think, ‘Ah, gee, I never went to France.’ Go to France. Life is very short; you’ve got to pack it all in there.” – Grace Slick

funny movie quotes about france

Have you ever wondered what the most famous quotes about France could be? I guess if you’re thinking about it, you just want to discover why most people love admiring France. I mean – is there anything better than admiring this country? Here are some movie quotes about France.

“I’d like to French pastry myself to death, right now.” Manhattan Murder Mystery

“Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook.” Beat the Devil

“I don’t know what they taught you in France, but rude and interesting are not the same things.” French Kiss

“- Toni: You know, I don’t understand anything you are saying.

– Joel: Don’t you speak French?

– Toni: Not your French.” – French Postcards

“You need to speak English or French. Frenglish is not a language.” D.E.B.S

“To be with another woman, that is French. To be caught, that is American.” Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

“Why live life from dream to dream? And dread the day when dreaming ends.” – Moulin Rouge

“I think we should go to Paris. We’ll be surrounded by rude French people. It should bring us closer.”‘ Til There Was You

quotes about france in french

À vaillant coeur rien d’impossible. -Jacques Cœur

“For a valiant heart nothing is impossible.”

“In France, we have a saying, ‘Joie de vivre,’ which actually doesn’t exist in the English language. It means looking at your life as something that is to be taken with great pleasure and enjoy it..” – Mireille Guiliano

On ne change pas une équipe qui gagne. -French proverb

“One does not change a winning team.” In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

 “Soyons fermes, purs et fidèles ; au bout de nos peines, il y a la plus grande gloire du monde, celle des hommes qui n’ont pas cédé. [Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.]” – charles de gaulle

Dans une grande âme tout est grand. -Blaise Pascal

“In a great mind everything is great.” 

 “On ne voit clairement qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible aux yeux” (It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye). – le petit prince

“Le savant généralise, l’artiste individualise.” – Jules Renard

Je pense, donc je suis. -Rene Descartes

“I think, therefore, I am.”

Famous quotes about the french riviera

“Yes, sir, there are things to see and do on the French Riviera without spending money.” – Robert A. Heinlein

“The easy glamour of the French Riviera in the 1960s – inspired by Rome Schneider’s character in La Piscine – mixed with garden elements. Blueprint, botanical, lattice, Queen Anne’s lace, and folly prints are paired with cleaner silhouettes and proportions in a fresh palette of green, white, and coral.” – Tony Burch

“He was old-fashioned looking, Grace decided. Not just the suit, which made him look as though he should be taking the air in one of those fifties movies on the French Riviera, but as if he was the second male lead in one of those same films. Not matinee-idol handsome enough to get the girl, but good enough to be the best friend of the one who got the girl. Or the arch nemesis of the one who got the girl who had his comeuppance ten minutes before the credits began to roll.” – Sarra Manning

“There’s something about the air and the sky and the atmosphere in the South of France that must be very conducive to work, to be creative, because I have written several of my books there. I find it so much easier because you’re cut off. If you don’t want to speak to anybody, basically they don’t know where you are. And it’s so beautiful.” – Joan Collins

“The whole future of art is to be found in the South of France. In fact, if you’re of the creative persuasion, the South of France is the only place to go on holidays as the pace of life will let you relax to the max and the sight of it will both heal your soul and inspire your work.” – Vincent Van Gogh

“The easy glamour of the French Riviera in the late 1960s – inspired by Romy Schneider’s character in La Piscine – mixed with garden elements. Blueprint, botanical, lattice, Queen Anne’s lace, and folly prints are paired with cleaner silhouettes and proportions in a fresh palette of green, white, and coral.” – Tory Burch

“The Mediterranean is in my DNA. I’m fine inland for about a week, but then I yearn for a limitless view of the sea, for the colours and smells of the Italian and French Riviera.” – Alain Ducasse

quotes about french culture 

Here are some of the best quotes about France that talk about French Culture. A lot of these French quotes come from many French thinkers. Some are similar thinkers seen in our post about the best stoicism quotes.

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”- Napoleon Bonaparte

“Once upon a time there was an old country, wrapped up in habit and caution. We have to transform our old France into a new country and marry it to its time. ” Charles de Gaulle

“This vice brings in one hundred million francs in taxes every year. I will certainly forbid it at once – as soon as you can name a virtue that brings in as much revenue.” – Napoleon III

“Only small minds want always to be right.” – Louis XIV of France

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.” – 

Quote from French Philosopher, and Inventor Blaise Pascal.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

“I might have had trouble saving France in 1946 – I didn’t have television then.” – Charles de Gaulle

quotes about Paris And Love

Paris quotes are great, and help us take in this amazing city. Paris has a lot of history, from the French Revolution to the recent fire at Notre Dame. Here are some of the best quotes about France that talk about Paris. 

“A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life. – Thomas Jefferson

“I like Paris, but I’m not really sure Paris likes me.” Lily Collins 

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”- Ernest Hemingway 

There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even – the French air clears up the brain and does good – a world of good.” – Vincent Van Gogh

“Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman.” – John Berger

“Just add three letters to Paris, and you have paradise.” – Jules Renard

“She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris.” – Gustave Flaubert

“You know, I sometimes think, how is anyone ever gonna come up with a book, or a painting, or a symphony, or a sculpture that can compete with a great city. You can’t. Because you look around and every street, every boulevard, is its own special art form, and when you think that in the cold, violent, meaningless universe that Paris exists, these lights. I mean come on, there’s nothing happening on Jupiter or Neptune, but from way out in space you can see these lights, the cafés, people drinking and singing. For all we know, Paris is the hottest spot in the universe.” – Owen Wilson

“A bad day in Paris is still a good day anywhere else.” – A famous quote about France, but the author is Unknown

“London is a riddle. Paris is an explanation.” – G. K. Chesterson

“Paris is always a good idea.”- Audrey Hepburn

“The heart of Paris is like nothing so much as the unending interior of a house. Buildings become furniture, courtyards become carpets and arrases, the streets are like galleries, the boulevards conservatories. It is a house, one or two centuries old, rich, bourgeois, distinguished. The only way of going out, or shutting the door behind you, is to leave the center..” – John Berger

“We’ll always have Paris.” – Humphry Bogart

“I’m not a complicated girl, she laughed, I just want to run away with you, rob a bank, fall in love and eat ice creams in Paris.” – Michael Faudet

“When good Americans die they go to Paris.” – Oscar Wilde

France quotes for Instagram

Here are some quotes about France that are perfect for social media. So if you are looking for a Paris Instagram caption then you have come to the right place. 

Traveling in France is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.

Traveling in France is like going to the gym. You’re sore afterwards, but you feel so good that you want to go back.”

One of the best parts about traveling in France is that if you’re lost, you’ll just find yourself again.

France is a place for romance and adventure.

In France, there is no such thing as a small town. Every town has a city in it and every city has a village.

Let’s get lost in Paris together

Life is a gift. Traveling is a privilege. Happy travels!

The language might be difficult, but the pastries are worth it. 😋

France is one of my favorite countries in Europe. And these quotes about France always make me want to visit! If you liked this post this check out our quotes about New York.

What was your favorite France quote? Did these make you want to plan the perfect Paris Itinerary. Or pack your bags and head to France?