1861 in France
Events from the year 1861 in France.
Incumbents
Events
- News of Henri Mouhot's discovery of Angkor Wat is published.
Births
- 1 January – Jacques Émile Blanche, painter
- 15 February - Charles Édouard Guillaume, physicist, awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1920
- 21 February - Pierre de Bréville, composer
- 30 October - Antoine Bourdelle, sculptor
- 2 November - Maurice Blondel, philosopher
- 8 December
- *Aristide Maillol, sculptor
- *Georges Méliès, filmmaker
- 16 December - Antonio de La Gandara, painter and draughtsman
Deaths
- 5 February - Pierre Bosquet, Marshal of France
- 10 April - Édouard Ménétries, entomologist
- 14 July - Frédéric de Lafresnaye, ornithologist
- 24 August - Pierre Berthier, geologist and mining engineer
- 22 September - Rose Chéri, actress
- 10 November - Henri Mouhot, naturalist and explorer
- 10 November - Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, zoologist
- 15 November - David Carcassonne, physician
- 20 November - Pierre Frédéric Sarrus, mathematician
- 21 November - Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, ecclesiastic, preacher, journalist and political activist
Full date unknown
- Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard, composer, violinist and conductor
- Marie-Alfred de Suin, French vice-admiral and commander