Events from the year 1926 in France.

• President: Gaston Doumergue
• President of the Council of Ministers:
  • until 20 July: Aristide Briand
  • 20 July-23 July: Édouard Herriot
  • starting 23 July: Raymond Poincaré

• 9 May – French navy bombards Damascus because of Druze riots.
• 15 July – Grand Mosque of Paris inaugurated.
• 24 November – The village of Rocquebillier on the Riviera is almost destroyed in a massive hailstorm.
• The Guide Michelin first awards stars to restaurants.

• Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts institutes the Prix Puvis de Chavannes, named after co-founder and first president, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.

• 20 June – Tour de France begins.
• 18 July – Tour de France ends, won by Lucien Buysse of Belgium.

• 17 January – Robert Filliou, artist (died 1987)
• 2 February – Philippe Chatrier, tennis player (died 2000)
• 7 February – Pierre Villette, composer (died 1998)
• 11 February – Paul Bocuse, chef (died 2018)
• 19 February – Pierre Guénin, journalist, gay rights activist (died 2017)
• 1 March – Robert Clary, French-American actor, author and lecturer (died 2022)
• 19 March – Henri René Guieu, science fiction writer (died 2000)
• 13 April – André Testut, motor racing driver (died 2005)
• 8 May – Pierre Broué, historian and Trotskyist (died 2005)
• 5 June – Claude Berge, mathematician (died 2002)
• 12 June – Jean-Pierre Munch, cyclist (died 1996)
• 26 June – Jérôme Lejeune, paediatrician and geneticist (died 1994)

• 6 July – Serge Roullet, film director and screenwriter (died 2023)
• 10 August – Michel Breitman, writer and translator (died 2009)
• 14 August – René Goscinny, author, editor and humorist (died 1977)
• 16 August – Roger Agache, archaeologist (died 2011)
• 17 August
  • Maurice Lusien, swimmer (died 2017)
  • Jean Poiret, actor, director and screenwriter (died 1992)
• 15 September – Jean-Pierre Serre, mathematician
• 17 September – Jean-Marie Lustiger, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris and cardinal (died 2007)
• 15 October – Michel Foucault, philosopher, historian, critic and sociologist (died 1984)
• 1 November – James Marson, politician (died 2017)
• 3 November – Paul Rebeyrolle, painter (died 2005)
• 9 November – Raymond Hains, artist and photographer (died 2005)
• 21 December – Georges Boudarel, academic and Communist militant (died 2003)

• 14 January – René Boylesve, author (born 1867)
• 28 February – Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly, astronomer (born 1842)
• 26 March – Georges Aaron Bénédite, Egyptologist (born 1857)
• 2 July – Émile Coué, psychologist and pharmacist (born 1857)
• 21 September – Léon Charles Thévenin, telegraph engineer (born 1857)
• 5 December – Claude Monet, painter (born 1840)^[1]

• Jean-Camille Formigé, architect (born 1845)

• List of French films of 1926