Events from the year 1861 in France.

• Monarch – Napoleon III

• News of Henri Mouhot's discovery of Angkor Wat is published.

• 1 January – Jacques Émile Blanche, painter (died 1942)
• 15 February - Charles Édouard Guillaume, physicist, awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1920 (died 1938)
• 21 February - Pierre de Bréville, composer (died 1949)
• 30 October - Antoine Bourdelle, sculptor (died 1929)
• 2 November - Maurice Blondel, philosopher (died 1949)
• 8 December
  • Aristide Maillol, sculptor (died 1944)
  • Georges Méliès, filmmaker (died 1938)
• 16 December - Antonio de La Gandara, painter and draughtsman (died 1917)

• 5 February - Pierre Bosquet, Marshal of France (born 1810)
• 10 April - Édouard Ménétries, entomologist (born 1802)
• 14 July - Frédéric de Lafresnaye, ornithologist (born 1783)
• 24 August - Pierre Berthier, geologist and mining engineer (born 1782)
• 22 September - Rose Chéri, actress (born 1824)
• 10 November - Henri Mouhot, naturalist and explorer (born 1826)
• 10 November - Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, zoologist (born 1805)
• 15 November - David Carcassonne, physician (born 1789)
• 20 November - Pierre Frédéric Sarrus, mathematician (born 1798)
• 21 November - Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, ecclesiastic, preacher, journalist and political activist (born 1802)

• Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard, composer, violinist and conductor (born 1789)
• Marie-Alfred de Suin, French vice-admiral and commander (born 1796)