1888 in France

Events from the year 1888 in France.

• President: Marie François Sadi Carnot
• President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Tirard (until 3 April), Charles Floquet (until 3 April)

• 21 February – Vincent van Gogh moves to Arles where he will be very productive as a painter.
• 16 March – France annexes the Polynesian kingdom of Raiatea and Taha'a.
• 18 March – France annexes the Polynesian kingdom of Bora Bora.
• 8 April – The town of Mende, Lozère, becomes the first French administrative centre to have electric light installed.
• July–August – Strike of laborers in Paris.
• 8 July – Inauguration of Fontinettes boat lift on the Canal de Neufossé.
• 12 July – Georges Ernest Boulanger and his supporters win seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
• 2 October – Census of foreign residents.
• 14 October – Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture, Roundhay Garden Scene, in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England (followed by Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge).
• 23 December – Having quarrelled with Gauguin, van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his own left ear, taking it to a brothel, and is removed to the hospital in Arles.
• Jeweller and glass designer René Lalique establishes the Lalique luxury goods business in Paris.

• Maurice Barrès - Le Culte du moi
• Guy de Maupassant - Pierre et Jean
• Octave Mirbeau - Abbé Jules
• Jules Verne - Deux ans de vacances
• Émile Zola - Le Rêve

• Claude Debussy - Ariettes oubliées
• Gabriel Fauré
  • Pavane
  • 2 Mélodies, Op. 46
  • Caligula
• Emmanuel Chabrier - Joyeuse marche
• Erik Satie - Gymnopédies

• 8 January – Pierre Wertheimer, businessman and racehorse owner (died 1965)
• 9 January – Alfred Plé, rower and Olympic medallist (died 1980)
• 20 January – Georges Marrane, politician (died 1976)
• 4 February – Georges Girard, bacteriologist (died 1985)
• 20 February – Georges Bernanos, author (died 1948)
• 1 February – Henri Pequet, pilot, flier of first official airmail flight in 1911 (died 1974)
• 28 February – Eugène Bigot, composer and conductor (died 1965)
• 7 March – Claude Roger-Marx, writer (died 1977)
• 17 March – Henri Gance, weightlifter and Olympic gold medallist (died 1983)
• 22 March – René Massigli, diplomat (died 1988)
• 28 March – Léon Noël, diplomat, politician and historian (died 1987)

• 1 April – Lucien Callamand, actor (died 1968)
• 2 April – Roger Ducret, fencer and Olympic gold medallist (died 1962)
• 14 May – Lucien Berland, entomologist and arachnologist (died 1962)
• 15 May – Jean Wahl, philosopher (died 1974)
• 27 May – Louis Durey, composer (died 1979)
• 5 June – Armand Annet, colonial governor (died 1973)

• 14 July – Jacques de Lacretelle, novelist (died 1985)
• 26 July – Marcel Jouhandeau, writer (died 1979)
• 31 July
  • Léonce Crenier, Roman Catholic monk and theologian (died 1963)
  • Jean Moreau, politician (died 1972)
• 8 August – César Vezzani, opera singer (died 1951)
• 12 September – Maurice Chevalier, actor and singer (died 1972)
• 16 September – Lucien Lamoureux, politician and Minister (died 1970)
• 24 September – Georges Jean Marie Darrieus, aeronautical engineer (died 1979)
• 30 September – Louis Lecoin, militant pacifist (died 1971)
• 6 October – Roland Garros, aviator and World War I fighter pilot (died 1918)
• 28 October – Stéphane Boudin, interior designer (died 1967)
• 9 November – Jean Monnet, architect of European Unity (died 1979)
• 23 November – Louis Antoine, mathematician (died 1971)
• 3 December – François Dupré, hotelier, art collector and horse breeder (died 1966)
• 16 December – Alphonse Juin, Marshal of France (died 1967)
• 26 December – Marius Canard, orientalist (died 1982)

• Georges Bénézé, philosopher (died 1978)
• Camille Le Mercier d'Erm, poet, historian and Breton nationalist (died 1978)

• 18 January – Auguste Nicolas, Roman Catholic apologetical writer (born 1807)
• 23 January – Eugène Marin Labiche, dramatist (born 1815)
• 13 February – Jean-Baptiste Lamy, first Archbishop of Santa Fe (born 1814)
• 20 February – François Perrier, general and geodesist (born 1835)
• 22 February – Jean-Delphin Alard, violinist (born 1815)
• 15 March – Léonard Morel-Ladeuil, goldsmith and sculptor (born 1820)
• 16 March – Hippolyte Carnot, statesman (born 1801)
• 29 March – Charles-Valentin Alkan, composer and pianist (born 1813)
• 1 April – Jules Émile Planchon, botanist (born 1823)
• 11 April – Louis-Frédéric Brugère, professor of apologetics and church history (born 1823)
• 14 July – Antoine Étex, sculptor, painter and architect (born 1808)
• 9 August – Charles Cros, poet and inventor (born 1842)
• 16 November – Arsène Darmesteter, philologist (born 1846)

• Pierre Bossan, architect (born 1814)
• Émile Sagot, (1805–1888) illustrator and lithographer^[1]