1842 in France
Events from the year 1842 in France.
Incumbents
Events
- 8 May – Versailles train crash at Meudon, results in the deaths of at least 55 passengers.
- 9 July – Legislative election held.
Births
January to June
- 31 January – Marie-Charles David de Mayréna, adventurer
- 13 March – Joseph Valentin Boussinesq, mathematician and physicist
- 18 March – Stéphane Mallarmé, poet and critic
- 25 March – Jean Marie Charles Abadie, ophthalmologist
- 4 April – Édouard Lucas, mathematician
- 17 April – Maurice Rouvier, statesman
- 10 June – Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy, painter and sculptor
July to December
- 30 July – Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, historian
- 14 August – Jean Gaston Darboux, mathematician
- 25 August – Édouard Louis Trouessart, zoologist
- 28 August – Placide Louis Chapelle, Archbishop in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans
- 30 September – Auguste-René-Marie Dubourg, Archbishop of Rennes and Cardinal
- 6 October – Gustave Charles Fagniez, historian and economist
- 8 December – Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly, astronomer
Deaths
January to June
- 7 January – Charles Berny d'Ouvillé, miniaturist
- 19 January – Joseph Jérôme, Comte Siméon, jurist and politician
- 23 March – Stendhal, writer
- 30 March – Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, painter
- 8 May – Jules Dumont d'Urville, explorer and French Navy officer, and his wife Adèle, killed in Versailles rail accident
- 15 May – Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases, atlas-maker, member of Napoleon's entourage and member of the military
- 24 June – Jean-Baptiste Prosper Jollois, engineer
July to December
- 13 July – Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, Prince Royal of France
- 19 July – Pierre Joseph Pelletier, chemist
- 25 July – Dominique Jean Larrey, military surgeon
- 20 October – Alexandre de Laborde, antiquary, liberal politician and writer