# 2008 in France

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This article lists events from the year 2008 in France.

## Incumbents

* President: Nicolas Sarkozy
* Prime Minister: François Fillon

## Events

* 1 January – Smoking banned in all public places (including bars and restaurants) in France.
* 2 February – Wedding of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni.
* 9 and 16 March – Cantonal elections held.
* 12 March – Lazare Ponticelli, the country's last surviving First World War veteran, dies aged 110 – eight months before the 90th anniversary of the Armistice.
* April – The Citroën C5 sedan is launched, whilst the station wagon was launched in May.
* 1 April – 2008 French mistaken virginity case
* 1 July – France assumes the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
* 2 July – Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC by Colombian security forces.
* 13 July – First meeting of Mediterranean Union, in Paris
* 10 September – Activation of Large Hadron Collider, localized between France and Switzerland
* 4 October – 50th Anniversary of the French Constitution of 1958 (French Fifth Republic).
* 27 November – XL Airways Germany Flight 888T crashed on a Mediterranean Sea, near Canet-en-Roussillon around Perpignan, killed seven people.
* October : Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier – the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
* December: – First album of the series Je n'aime pas le classique, mais ça j'aime bien! was released
* Undated
** Black music, des chaînes de fer aux chaînes d'or documentary film is released.
** Yeallow, French indie rock band from Strasbourg is formed.

## Deaths
### January

* 3 January – Henri Chopin, avant-garde poet and musician (born 1922).
* 5 January – Raymond Forni, Socialist politician (born 1941).
* 5 January – Louis Hon, soccer player (born 1924).
* 7 January – Maryvonne Dupureur, Olympic athlete (born 1937).
* 7 January – Marcel Mouly, artist (born 1918).
* 7 January – Jean-Claude Vrinat, restaurateur (born 1936).
* 12 January – Louis Alexandre Raimon, hair stylist (born 1922).
* 16 January – Raymond Cambefort, one of the last three fully verified World War I veterans living in France (born 1900).
* 16 January – Pierre Lambert, Trotskyist leader (born 1920).
* 17 January – Carlos, singer, entertainer and actor (born 1943).
* 17 January – Madeleine Milhaud, actress (born 1902).
* 20 January – Louis de Cazenave, at the time of his death, the oldest French poilu still alive (born 1897).
* 29 January – Philippe Khorsand, actor (born 1948).

### February

* 2 February – Roger Testu, cartoonist (born 1913).
* 6 February – Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec, writer and Grand Druid of Brittany (born 1929).
* 12 February – Jean Prouff, soccer player and manager (born 1919).
* 13 February – Henri Salvador, singer (born 1917).
* 13 February – Roger Voisin, trumpeter (born 1918).
* 18 February – Alain Robbe-Grillet, writer and filmmaker (born 1922).
* 19 February – Jean-Michel Bertrand, politician (born 1943).
* 28 February – Gérard Calvet, Roman Catholic abbot (born 1927).

### March

* 12 March – Lazare Ponticelli, last surviving official French veteran of the First World War (born 1897).
* 17 March – Roland Arnall, businessman and diplomat in the United States (born 1939).
* 19 March – Chantal Sébire, teacher and euthanasia campaigner (born 1955).
* 25 March – Thierry Gilardi, football and rugby commentator (born 1958).
* 26 March – Christian Bergelin, politician (born 1945).
* 27 March – Jean-Marie Balestre, sports executive (born 1921).
* 30 March – Marie-Françoise Audollent, actress (born 1943).

### April

* 9 April – Jacques Morel, actor (born 1922).
* 11 April – Claude Abbes, international soccer player (born 1927).
* 17 April – Aimé Césaire, poet, author and politician (born 1913).
* 19 April – Germaine Tillion, anthropologist (born 1907).
* 20 April – Farid Chopel, actor, comedian and singer (born 1952).
* 23 April – Jean-Daniel Cadinot, film director and producer (born 1944).

### May

* 9 May – Pascal Sevran, TV presenter and author (born 1945).
* 10 May – Paul Haeberlin, chef and restaurateur (born 1923).

### June

* 1 June – Yves Saint Laurent, fashion designer (born 1936).
* 6 June – Paul Tessier, surgeon (born 1917).
* 11 June – Jean Desailly, actor (born 1920).
* 18 June – Jean Delannoy, actor, screenwriter and film director (born 1908).
* 26 June – Lilyan Chauvin, actress and writer (born 1925).
* 27 June – Frédéric Botton, lyricist and composer (b. c1937).
* 27 June – Raymond Lefèvre, orchestra leader, arranger and composer (born 1929).

### July

* 10 July – Bernard Cahier, Formula One photo-journalist (born 1927).
* 28 July – Pierre Berès, bookseller and antiquarian book collector (born 1913).

### September

* 17 September – Patrick Alexandroni, actor, rapper, and television producer (born 1962)

### October

* 13 October – Guillaume Depardieu Actor
* 20 October – Soeur Emmanuelle

### November

* 1 November – Jacques Lunis, athlete (born 1923).