Events from the year 1881 in France.

• President: Jules Grévy
• President of the Council of Ministers: Jules Ferry (until 14 November), Charles de Freycinet (starting 14 November)

• 13 February – First issue of the feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is published by Hubertine Auclert.
• 23 March – A fire caused by a gas explosion destroys the Opéra de Nice with fatalities.
• April – Sixth Impressionist exhibition in Paris, at Nadar's studio.^[1]
• 12 May – Treaty of Bardo is signed between the French Republic and Tunisian bey Muhammed as-Sadiq. Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.
• 29 July – Law on the Freedom of the Press is passed.
• 15 August–15 November – International Exposition of Electricity staged in Paris. Among new developments demonstrated is Clément Ader's stereophonic théâtrophone.^[2]
• 13 October – Determined to bring about the revival of the Hebrew language as a way of unifying Jews, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda has what is believed to be the first conversation in Modern Hebrew, with friends living in Paris.

• 11 January – Lucien Rosengart, engineer (died 1976)
• 21 January – André Godard, archeologist and architect (died 1965)
• 19 February – Paul Tournon, architect (died 1964)
• 20 February – Julien Maitron, cyclist (died 1972)
• 21 February – Marc Boegner, theologist, pastor, French Resistance member and essayist (died 1970)
• 18 March – Paul Le Flem, composer and musician (died 1984)
• 23 March – Roger Martin du Gard, author, winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature (died 1958)
• 12 April – Élisée Maclet, painter (died 1962)
• 1 May - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, paleontologist, Jesuit priest (died 1955)
• 21 June – Camille Drevet, anti-colonialist, feminist and pacifist activist (died 1969)
• 27 June – Jérôme Carcopino, historian and author (died 1970)
• 29 July – Paul Couturier, priest and promoter of the concept of Christian unity (died 1953)
• 7 August – François Darlan, Admiral (died 1942)
• 10 October – Gaston Ragueneau, athlete and Olympic medallist (died 1978)
• 4 November – Gaby Deslys, dancer and actress (died 1920)
• 8 November – Robert Esnault-Pelterie, pioneering aircraft designer (died 1957)
• 5 December – René Cresté, actor and director (died 1922)
• 12 December - Louise Thuliez, resistance fighter in World War I and World War II (died 1966)^[3]

• 19 January – Auguste Mariette, scholar and archaeologist (born 1821)
• 13 February – Alexis Paulin Paris, scholar and author (born 1800)
• 17 February – Emile-Justin Menier, pharmaceutical manufacturer, chocolatier, and politician (born 1826).
• 1 March – Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys, statesman and diplomat (born 1805)
• 24 March – Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, geologist and mineralogist (born 1817)
• 26 March – Jules Achille Noël, painter (born 1815)
• 4 April – Napoléon Peyrat, author and historian (born 1809)
• 27 April – Émile de Girardin, journalist, publicist and politician (born 1802)
• 2 June
  • Émile Littré, lexicographer and philosopher (born 1801)
  • Pierre Louis Rouillard, sculptor (born 1820)
• 28 June – Jules Armand Dufaure, statesman (born 1798)
• 9 July – Paul Bins, comte de Saint-Victor, author (born 1827)
• 21 December – Édouard Dulaurier, Orientalist and Egyptologist (born 1807)