France quotes: 103 Best Quotes about France That Will Inspire You To Visit
Looking for quotes about France to inspire you to visit the country? This post will give you all the funny, romantic, and inspirational France quotes you’ll love!
France is a country like no other! With stunning cities, monuments and so much to do, it’s no surprise that it’s one of the most visited countries in Europe!
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Whether it’s climbing the Eiffel Tower, discovering all the hidden gems in Paris, sleeping in a hotel with Eiffel Tower views, chilling on a beach in the south, or getting lost in the Loire Valley castles, traveling to France is a dream come true!
With all this beauty, writers, artists, and other famous people have been inspired over time to put down words that describe it in the most perfect way possible!
So, whether you’re looking for quotes on France to go with your France photos or just don’t have the right words to describe this European country, this post will give you all the best France quotes that melodically describe it!
Need quotes about just Paris? You can check out my dedicated article on Paris quotes, this one for Paris Instagram captions, or this one if you prefer jokes about Paris.
Famous Quotes About France
To help you navigate this post easily, I’ve categorized it into; beautiful quotes about France, romantic France quotes, funny quotes about France, short quotes on France, Inspirational France quotes, quotes about French people, quotes about life in France, and finally Travel quotes about France.
Beautiful Quotes About France
Some of these French quotes are featured in these famous books about Paris, some in popular movies & series while some others were said by strong political figures.
1.“France is beautiful. I stood at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower today and looked up at it. There are very few times in my life I’ve felt so small.” — Leisa Rayven
2. “What an immense impression Paris made upon me. It is the most extraordinary place in the world!” — Charles Dickens
3. “I just love France, I love French people, I love the French language, I love French food. I love their mentality. I just feel like it’s me. I’m very French.” — Olga Kurylenko
4. “France is the most civilized country in the world and doesn’t care who knows it.” — John Gunther
5. “I love France. It’s got the sun down at the bottom, the alps for skiing, and all that wine and food.” — Paul Hollywood
6. “France has the only two things towards which we drift as we grow older – intelligence and manners.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. “I do not believe there is another city on earth so beautiful as Paris nor another people with such an appreciation of the beautiful as the French…” — Edward Hopper
8. “The French air cleans up the brain and does good – a world of good.” — Vincent Van Gogh
9. “There is an admirable fact about the psychology of France: she knows no half measures, loathsome or sublime, she forges the thought and the beauty of a world or of a dung heap; her destiny is never to be mediocre.” — Josephin Peladan
10. “It is true that in France, women put on fewer things. If they have a necklace, they don’t put on earrings; if they have nail polish, they don’t put on all their rings and all their bracelets. “ — Ines de La Fressange
11. “Paris is a place where, for me, just walking down a street that I’ve never been down before is like going to a movie or something. Just wandering the city is entertainment.” — Wes Anderson
12. “I had forgotten how gently time passes in Paris. As lively as the city is, there’s a stillness to it, a peace that lures in you. In Paris, with a glass of wine in your hand, you can just be.” — Kristin Hannah
13. “I love the French language… it’s a delightful language, especially to curse with. It’s like whopping your ass with silk.” — Oscar Wilde
14. “In France, they call the beauty of youth ‘the evil beauty.’ You don’t have it because of you but because you’re born with it. The other kind of beauty is your own work, and it takes forever.” — Monica Bellucci
15. “The flavors melted in my mouth- warm chocolate and melted butter and the flaky sweet crust. This was what I loved about France. A keen appreciation for the simplicity and sweetness of life. The French seemed to savor their minutes along with their food.” — Melanie Dobson
16. “The shopping, the food, the views! Paris is a city that entrances us all — and I’m no exception.” — Michael Kors
17. “The Seine. I have painted it all my life, at all hours of the day, at all times of the year, from Paris to the sea…Argenteuil, Poissy, Vétheuil, Giverny, Rouen, Le Havre.” — Claude Monet
18. “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
Romantic France Quotes
19. “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
20. “France is to me the heroine in the romance of all the nations of all time.” — Lt. William Arthur Sirmon
21. “I’d love to be a tabletop in Paris, where food is art and life combined in one, where people gather and talk for hours. I want lovers to meet over me. I’d want to be covered in drops of candle wax and breadcrumbs and rings from the bottom of wine glasses. I would never be lonely, and i would always serve a good purpose.” — Maureen Johnson
22. “Quarrels in France strengthen a love affair, in America, they end it.” — Ned Rorem
Funny Quotes About France
23. “Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amélie and Moulin Rouge.”– Stephanie Perkins
24. “I hate France. It’s like the whole country’s on a diet.” — Gordon Korman
25. “In Paris, they simply stared when I spoke to them in French, I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.” — Mark Twain
26. “Brittany is pretty and it’s not far from France” — Coluche
27. “I have been in Paris for almost a week and I have not heard anyone say calories, or cholesterol, or even arterial plaque. The French do not season their food with regret.” — Mary-Lou Weisman
28. “The best thing I know between France and England is the sea” — Douglas William Jerrold
29. “You should definitely visit the Louvre, a world-famous art museum where you can view, at close range, the backs of thousands of other tourists trying to see the Mona Lisa.” — Dave Barry
30. “God, it’s good to be eating in France again.” — Jack Iams
31. “I like Paris, but I’m not really sure Paris likes me.” — Emily, Emily in Paris
32. “I always say ”morning” instead of ”good morning”. If it was a good morning, I would be on a yacht in Saint-Tropez.” — Unknown
33. “France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.” — Mark Twain
34. “In England, football is a religion. In France, football is not a religion. It’s wine and food.” — Robert Pires
35. “You can’t live in France if you’re not interested in food.” — Stephen Clarke
36. “France is a paradise inhabited by people who believe they are in hell.” — Sylvain Tesson
37. “France may be the only country in the world where the rich are sometimes brilliant.” — Lillian Hellman
38. “When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.” — Charles de Gaulle
39. “If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France. ” — Nicolas Chamfort
40. “Everything ends this way in France – everything. Weddings, christenings, duels, burials, swindlings, diplomatic affairs – everything is a pretext for a good dinner,” –Jean Anouilh, Cecile
41. “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?” — Charles de Gaulle
42. “I like Ireland because it means I’m near France” — Harry Harrison
43. “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
44. “France is the only country where the money falls apart and you can’t tear the toilet paper.” — Billy Wilder
45. “Maybe it can’t be proven statistically, but it’s a safe bet that any given American on his or her first trip to France will at some point remark with indignation that he or she had thought the French were supposed to be so polite.” — Jack Iams
46. “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
47. “You haven’t done Paris right until you’ve had at least one wildly inappropriate affair.” — Mindy, Emily in Paris
48. “No matter how well I could pronounce words or expressions, there was no terroir in my vocabulary. Words all meant the same to me — almost like those black and white letter magnets you stick to a refrigerator. Table, Chaise, Connard, Pute, Vélo, Merde were all interchangeable and non-denominational, standing next to each other in my brain like a bad haiku.” — John von Sothen
49. “There is a painful joke that Europeans often tell of their Gallic neighbors: God created France, the most beautiful country in the world with so much good in it, and ended up feeling guilty about it. He had to do something to make it fair. And so, he created the French people.” — Janine di Giovanni
50. “True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee. But why this is more stylish than sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don’t know.” — P.J. O’Rourke
Short Quotes About France in English
51. “Every man has two countries: His own and France.” — John F. Kennedy
52. “In France, History is paralyzing.” — Jean Paul Gaultier
53. “A little ‘bonjour’ goes a long way.” — Emily, Emily in Paris
54. “French is the language that turns dirt into romance.” — Stephen King
55. “When I got to France I realized I didn’t know very much about food at all.” — Julia Child
56. “France is great because she is France.” — Victor Hugo
57. “I like France, where everybody thinks he’s Napoleon. — F. Scott Fitzgerald
58. “In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.”– Julia Child
59. “Now nothing is real except French wine.” — Conrad Kent Rivers
60. “There is far less envy in America than in France, and far less wit” — Stendhal
61. “Paris is always a good idea.” – Audrey Hepburn
62. “The South of France is one of my favorite places in the world.” — M. Ward
Inspirations France Quotes
63. “It is not what France gave you but what it did not take from you that is important.” — Gertrude Stein
64. “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
65. “People wonder why so many writers come to live in Paris. I’ve been living ten years in Paris and the answer seems simple to me: because it’s the best place to pick ideas. Just like Italy, Spain.. Or Iran are the best places to pick saffron. If you want to pick opium poppies you go to Burma or South-East Asia. And if you want to pick novel ideas, you go to Paris.” – Roman Payne
66. “France has a clear and defined policy… the French know what they want.” — Anton Chekov
67. “A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life.” — Thomas Jefferson
68. “France, and the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing though is that people there know how to live! In America they’ve forgotten all about it. I’m afraid that the American culture is a disaster.” — Johnny Depp
69. “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
70. “It seemed that in Paris you could discuss classic literature or architecture or great music with everyone from the garbage collector to the mayor.” — Julia Child
Quotes about French People
71. “Boy, those French. They have a different word for everything.” — Steve Martin
72. “God invented Parisians so foreigners wouldn’t understand anything about French people.” — Alexandre Dumas
73. “Chinese people are mean behind your back. French people are mean to your face.”– Mindy, Emily in Paris
74. “Ah the French! They are like camembert, they don’t travel very well” — Claude Zidi
75. “I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.” — Josephine Baker
76. The French are romantics, but they’re also realists.” — Mindy, Emily in Paris
77. “It’s true that the French have a certain obsession with sex, but it’s particularly an adult obsession. France is the thriftiest of all nations; to a Frenchman, sex provides the most economical way to have fun. The French are a logical race.” — Anita Loos
78. “When dealing with a Frenchman, you need to be aware that there is a voice in his head. It is consistently telling him “I’m French, I’m right.” — Stephen Clarke
79. “French people get on my nerves. A lot! But I don’t know any other language so I’ve got to speak to them.” — Michel Audiard
80. “I cannot prevent the French from being French.” — Charles de Gaulle
81. “The French are a logical people, which is one reason the English dislike them so intensely. The other is that they own France, a country which we have always judged to be much too good for them” — Robert Morley
82. “Every Frenchman wants to enjoy one or more privileges; that’s the way he shows his passion for equality.” — Charles de Gaulle
83. “No matter what their background, the southern French are fascinated by food.” — Peter Mayle
Quotes About Life in France
84. “There is an atmosphere of spiritual effort here. No other city is quite like it. I wake early, often at 5 o’clock, and start writing at once.” — James Joyce
85. “What an immense impression Paris made upon me. It is the most extraordinary place in the world!” — Charles Dickens
86. “I had forgotten how gently time passes in Paris. As lively as the city is, there’s a stillness to it, a peace that lures in you. In Paris, with a glass of wine in your hand, you can just be.” — Kristin Hannah
87. “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
88. “What I gained by being in France was learning to be better satisfied with my own country.” — Samuel Johnson
89. “Everyone dreams of living in Paris.” — Natalie Portman
90. “We gasp at the beauty of the bridges over the Seine and always feel at home when we stop in the middle of one to gaze down at the cottony wake of the Bateaux Mouches. We love the mountain air that refreshes us in the Alps, and the nighttime clouds that eat the stars over the Breton coast. We love to slow down, and France requires us to do so. In France, we find what we are missing.” — Marcia DeSanctis
91. “The reason why all of us naturally began to live in France is because France has scientific methods, machines, and electricity, but does not really believe that these things have anything to do with the real business of living.” — Gertrude Stein
92. “I think you get better at staring into space. Especially living in the South of France.” — Adrian Lyne
France Travel Quotes
93. “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
94. “So, ask the traveled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on earth would you rather live? — Certainly, in my own, where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France.” — Thomas Jefferson
95. “I woke up one time coming out of a blackout, and I was on an airplane, descending to land in Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. And all I can think is I must have decided it was a good idea to go to France, and got my passport, and got on a plane.” — Joe Walsh
96. “France has been very good for me. It has given me a very worldly-cool attitude.” — Marianne Faithfull
97. “Does this boat go to Europe, France?” — Anita Loos
98. “Very occasionally, I wish I was French. The fantasy usually materializes just after a holiday, when I dream of living by the warmth of the Mediterranean, or after a trip to Paris during which I indulge fantasies of being a Left Bank cafe-bohemian.” — David Olusoga
99. “Like many other tourists, I’m afraid I fell in love with Paris at first sight.” — Yvette Mimieux
100. “Paris, hours in the café, a certain spirit of rebellion, one side a bit too stubborn, the sea, the true, in Bretagne, the walking in Provence, the taste, the passion for literature, the libraries, the beautiful editions, remaking the world in a set of hours around a table and a bottle of wine. Talking without really saying nothing, just for the pleasure of talking. The museums, the theatres, the elegance, the delicacy, the heritage of the Illustration, a humanistic philosophy. The balance we got between a nordic rigor and a latin savoir-vivre, the insolence and the freedom.” — Clemence Poesy
101. “Paris is the only city where you can step out of a railway station — and see, the Seine with its bridges and bookstalls, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Tuileries gardens, the Place de la Concorde, the beginning of the Champs Elysees — what other city offers as much as you leave a train?“ — Margaret Anderson
102. “I want to take as the canvas for my next picture the entire surface of France.” — Yves Klein
103. “Paris is always a good idea.” — Audrey Hepburn
Final Thoughts On The Best Quotes About France
You may not have the poetic words to describe the county but these France quotes will help you with the right word!
Perfect for any social media channel, these quotes about France will make your photos stand out even more while making you look smarter!
Do you have a favorite quote about France that you don’t see here, let me know which one it is in the comment section below and I’ll add it to the list!
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