1886 in France

Incumbents

• President: Jules Grévy
• President of the Council of Ministers:
• * until 7 January: Henri Brisson
• * 7 January-16 December: Charles de Freycinet
• * starting 16 December: René Goblet

Events

• 15 May – Portugal and France agree to regulate the borders of their colonies in Guinea.
• 30 November – Folies Bergère in Paris stages its first revue.
• Georges Seurat finishes painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Literature

• Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam - L'Ève future
• Pierre Loti - Pêcheur d'Islande
• Jules Mary - Roger la Honte
• Octave Mirbeau - Le Calvaire
• Jules Verne
• * Un Billet de loterie
• * Robur-le-Conquérant
• Émile Zola - ''L'Œuvre''

Births

January to June

• 28 January – Georges Painvin, cryptanalyst
• 5 March – Léon Mathot, actor and film director
• 7 March – Jacques Majorelle, painter
• 7 March – René Thomas, motor racing driver
• 28 March – Gustave Mesny, army general
• 29 March – Paul Amiot, actor
• 15 April – Amédée Ozenfant, cubist painter
• 19 April – Hermine David, painter
• 25 April – Marie Brémont, supercentenarian, the oldest recognized person in the world from November 2000 until her death
• 29 April – Count Renaud de la Frégeolière, author and first president of the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing
• 3 May – Marcel Dupré, organist, pianist and composer
• 24 May – Paul Paray, conductor, organist and composer

July to December

• 16 July – Pierre Benoit, novelist
• 3 August – Henri Debain, actor
• 8 September – Marguerite Jeanne Carpentier, painter and sculptor
• 15 September – Paul Lévy, mathematician
• 16 September – Jean Arp, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist
• 30 September – Gaston Ramon, veterinarian and biologist
• 3 October – Alain-Fournier, author and soldier
• 4 October – Laurent Eynac, politician and Minister
• 6 November – André Marty, leading figure in the French Communist Party
• 15 November – René Guénon, orientalist and philosopher
• 30 December – Henri Chapron, automobile coachbuilder

Full date unknown

• Marie-Gabriel Tissot, Abbot of Quarr

Deaths

• 23 January – Jean Baptiste Prosper Bressant, actor
• 27 April – Eugène Isabey, painter, draftsman, and printmaker
• 17 March – Pierre-Jules Hetzel, editor and publisher
• 23 May – Pierre Édouard Frère, painter
• 12 July – Ferdinand Berthier, deaf educator, intellectual and political organiser
• 14 August – Edmond Laguerre, mathematician
• 8 September – Maurice Jean Auguste Girard, entomologist
• 16 September – Louis, duc de Decazes, statesman
• 26 September – Hippolyte Castille, writer
• 14 November – Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois, geologist and mineralogist