1772 in France

Incumbents

• Monarch: Louis XV

Events

• 12 February - Breton-French explorer Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec discovers the uninhabited Kerguelen Islands in the Southern Ocean.
• The Clicquot Champagne house is founded by Philippe Clicquot in Reims.
• Houbigant Parfum is founded by Jean-François Houbigant of Grasse in Paris.

Births

• 20 January - Angélique Brûlon, soldier, first female Knight of the Legion of Honour
• 7 April - Charles Fourier, philosopher
• 25 October - Géraud Duroc, general

Deaths

• 21 March - Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, cartographer
• 26 March - Charles Pinot Duclos, writer
• 15 June - Louis-Claude Daquin, composer
• 22 June - François-Vincent Toussaint, writer most famous for Les Mœurs
• 8 October - Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, violinist and composer