1903 in France
Events from the year 1903 in France.
Incumbents
Events
- 10 August – Paris Métro train fire kills 84 people mostly at Couronnes station.
Arts
- Paul Gauguin - Paysage avec un cochon et un cheval
- Jacqueline Marval - Les Odalisques
- Henri Ottmann - Vue de la gare du Luxembourg à Bruxelles
- Pablo Picasso
- * Le Vieux Guitariste aveugle
- * Portrait bleu de Angel Fernández de Soto
- * La Vie
- Théo van Rysselberghe - La Lecture par Émile Verhaeren
Film
- Georges Méliès
- * Le Revenant
- * Faust aux enfers
- * Le Puits fantastique
- * Le Cake-Walk infernal
- * Le Chaudron infernal
- * L'Auberge du bon repos
- * Le Royaume des fées
- * La Lanterne magique
- * Le Mélomane
- * Un malheur n'arrive jamais seul
- * Le Monstre
- * La Boîte à malice
- * L'Oracle de Delphes
- * Le Portrait spirite
- * Le Bourreau turc
- * ''Le Sorcier''
Literature
- René Boylesve - L'Enfant à la balustrade
- Joris-Karl Huysmans - L'Oblat
- John Antoine Nau - ''Force ennemie''
Music
- Claude Debussy - Estampes
- Gabriel Fauré - Morceau de Concours
- Alphonse Hasselmans - Prélude, Op. 51
- Jules Massenet - Piano Concerto
- Gabriel Pierné - Konzertstück, Op. 39
- Camille Saint-Saëns - Valse langoureuse, Op. 120
- Erik Satie - Je te veux
Sport
- 1 July – First Tour de France begins.
- 19 July – Tour de France ends, won by Maurice Garin.
Births
January to March
- 16 January – William Grover-Williams, motor racing driver and war hero.
- 13 February – Georges Simenon, writer
- 21 February
- *Anaïs Nin, writer
- *Raymond Queneau, poet and novelist
- 27 February – Fernand Gambiez, General and military historian
- 8 March – Jean d'Eaubonne, art director
- 9 March – André Godinat, cyclist
April to June
- 8 May – Fernandel, actor
- 15 May – Germaine Dieterlen, anthropologist
- 22 May – Yves Rocard, physicist
- 2 June – Max Aub, author, playwright and literary critic
- 18 June – Raymond Radiguet, author
- 25 June – Pierre Brossolette, journalist and Resistance fighter
- 28 June – André Maschinot, soccer player
July to September
- 25 July – André Fleury, composer, pianist and organist
- 15 August – Pascal Pia, writer, journalist, illustrator and scholar
- 19 August – Claude Dauphin, actor
- 29 August – Jean Follain, author, poet and lawyer
October to December
- 1 October – Pierre Veyron, motor racing driver
- 10 October – Ferdinand Le Drogo, cyclist
- 16 October – Cécile de Brunhoff, storyteller
- 18 October – Raoul Dutheil, footballer
- 19 October – Jean Delsarte, mathematician
- 23 October – The French Angel, professional wrestler
- 24 October – Charlotte Perriand, architect and designer
- 1 November – Jean Tardieu, artist, musician, poet and author
- 3 November – Charles Rigoulot, weightlifter, professional wrestler, race car driver and actor
- 9 November – Léon-Étienne Duval, Cardinal
- 15 November – Lucien Rebatet, author, journalist and intellectual
- 27 November – Julien Moineau, cyclist
- 30 November – Claude Arrieu, composer
- 17 December – Roland de Vaux, priest and archaeologist
- 23 December – Armand Blanchonnet, cyclist and Olympic gold medallist
Full date unknown
- Maryse Choisy, philosophical writer
- Pierre Naville, writer and sociologist
Deaths
- 28 January
- *Augusta Holmès, composer
- *Robert Planquette, composer of songs and operettas
- 5 March – Gaston Paris, writer and scholar
- 14 March – Ernest Legouvé, dramatist
- 28 March – Émile Baudot, telegraph engineer
- 8 May – Paul Gauguin, painter
- 16 May – Sibyl Sanderson, American operatic soprano
- 13 November – Camille Pissarro, painter
Full date unknown
- Jean-Jules Allasseur, sculptor
- Louis-Arsène Delaunay, actor