1874 in France

Events from the year 1874 in France.

Incumbents

15 March – France and the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.

23 January – Camille Saint-Saëns' composition Danse Macabre is premiered.
25 April – Louis Leroy reviews the First Impressionist Exhibition, held in Paris, and coins the term with reference to Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise.

21 January – René-Louis Baire, mathematician (died 1932)
19 February – Rose Gelbert, golfer (died 1956){{cite web |title=Olympedia – Rose Gelbert |url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/17847 |website=www.olympedia.org |access-date=20 July 2021}}
22 March – Jean Cau, rower.
3 May – François Coty, perfume manufacturer (died 1934)
14 May – Polaire (Emilie Marie Bouchaud), singer and actress (died 1939)

29 July – Auguste Giroux, rugby union player (died 1953)
4 September – Jean d'Orléans, duc de Guise, great-grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French (died 1940)
4 October – Joseph d'Arbaud, poet (died 1950)
25 October – Henri Bénard, physicist (died 1939)
2 November – Georges Andrique, painter (died 1964)
14 November – André-Gaston Prételat, general (died 1969)
5 December – Henriette Caillaux, socialite and assassin (died 1943)
6 December – Lucien Démanet, gymnast
24 December – Yves Le Febvre, writer and politician (died 1959)

8 January – Abbé Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, writer, historian (born 1814)
9 February – Jules Michelet, historian (born 1798){{cite book|first=Henry|last=Allon|title=The British Quarterly Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3NHAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA184|year=1877|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|pages=184}}
26 August – Julie-Victoire Daubié, journalist (born 1824)
12 September – François Guizot, Prime Minister (born 1787)
22 December – Louis Aubert-Roche, physician (born 1818)