See also: 1896 in France, other events of 1897, 1898 in France.

Events from the year 1897 in France.

Events

• 9 December - First issue of the feminist newspaper La Fronde is published by Marguerite Durand.

Arts and Literature

• 28 December - The play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris.

Births

• 21 January - René Iché, sculptor (d.1954).
• 10 September - Georges Bataille, writer (d.1962).
• 12 September - Irène Joliot-Curie, scientist, shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 (d.1956).
• 3 October - Louis Aragon, poet and novelist (d.1982).
• 16 October - Louis de Cazenave, at the time of his death, the oldest French poilu still alive (d.2008).
• 7 December - Lazare Ponticelli, last surviving official French veteran of the First World War (d.2008).

Deaths

• 13 January - Charles Brun, naval engineer (b.1821).
• 5 July - Edmond-Frederic Le Blant, archaeologist and historian (b.1818).
• 30 September - Thérèse de Lisieux, Roman Catholic Carmelite nun, canonised as a saint (b.1873).
• 6 November - Edouard Deldevez, violinist, conductor and composer (b.1817).
• 16 December - Alphonse Daudet, novelist (b.1840).

Full date unknown

• Marie François Oscar Bardy de Fourtou, politician (b.1836).
• Léonard-Léopold Forgemol de Bostquénard, general (b.1821).
• Louis Pierre Mouillard, engineer (b.1834).

References