Le Plus Grand Français
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Le Plus Grand Français de tous les temps (The Greatest Frenchman of all Time) was a France 2 show of early 2005, based on an original series of Great Britons on the BBC. The show asked the French viewers who they thought was the Greatest Frenchman or Frenchwoman. It was presented by Michel Drucker and Thierry Ardisson, and the final episode was broadcast at the French Senate.
The winner was the former president and leader of the Free French movement, Charles de Gaulle.
The show was criticized by some historians in that it focussed only on personalities of recent French history. Key figures of French history who contributed to the founding of the French nation, such as kings Philip Augustus, Saint Louis, and Louis XIV, or French heroine Joan of Arc, were largely ignored.
[edit] The Greatest Frenchman of All Time
- Charles de Gaulle – Political leader and statesman
- Louis Pasteur – Scientist
- Abbé Pierre – Priest
- Marie Curie – Scientist
- Coluche – Comedian
- Victor Hugo – Author
- Bourvil - Actor
- Molière – Playwright
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau – Oceanologist
- Édith Piaf - Singer
- Marcel Pagnol - Author and filmmaker
- Georges Brassens - Musician
- Fernandel - Actor
- Jean de la Fontaine - Poet and fabulist
- Jules Verne – Science Fiction author
- Napoleon Bonaparte – Military/Political leader
- Louis de Funès - Actor
- Jean Gabin - Actor
- Daniel Balavoine - Musician
- Serge Gainsbourg - Musician
- Zinedine Zidane - Footballer
- Charlemagne – Middle Ages emperor
- Lino Ventura - Actor
- François Mitterrand – 1980s President
- Gustave Eiffel – Architect
- Émile Zola - Author
- Sœur Emmanuelle - Religious humanitarian
- Jean Moulin - Leader of French resistance to the occupying Nazis in France during WWII
- Charles Aznavour - Singer
- Yves Montand - Actor and Singer
- Jeanne d’Arc – Military leader, Saint
- Général Leclerc - Military
- Voltaire – Political author
- Johnny Hallyday - Singer
- Antoine de St-Exupéry - Aviator and author
- Claude Francois - Singer
- Christian Cabrol - Cardiologist and surgeon
- Jean-Paul Belmondo - Actor
- Jules Ferry - Politician
- Louis Lumière - Cinema inventor
- Michel Platini - Footballer
- Jacques Chirac – President
- Charles Trenet - Singer
- Georges Pompidou – President
- Michel Sardou - Singer
- Simone Signoret - Actress
- Haroun Tazieff - Vulcanologist
- Jacques Prévert - Poet
- Éric Tabarly - Sailor
- Louis XIV – King
- David Douillet - Judoka
- Henri Salvador - Singer
- Jean-Jacques Goldman - Musician
- Jean Jaures - Politician
- Jean Marais - Actor
- Yannick Noah - Tennis player
- Albert Camus – Author
- Dalida - Singer
- Léon Zitrone - Journalist
- Nicolas Hulot - Journalist
- Simone Veil - Politician
- Alain Delon - Actor
- Patrick Poivre d'Arvor - Journalist
- Aimé Jacquet - Footballer
- Francis Cabrel - Singer
- Brigitte Bardot - Actress
- Guy De Maupassant - Author
- Alexandre Dumas, père – Author
- Honoré de Balzac – Author
- Paul Verlaine - Poet
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Political author
- Robespierre – Political leader
- Renaud - Singer
- Bernard Kouchner - Politician and humanitarian
- Claude Monet – Artist
- Michel Serrault - Actor
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Artist
- Michel Drucker - Journalist
- Raimu - Actor
- Vercingetorix - Gallic leader
- Raymond Poulidor - Racing cyclist
- Charles Baudelaire – Poet
- Pierre Corneille - Author
- Arthur Rimbaud - Poet
- Georges Clemenceau – Political leader
- Gilbert Bécaud - Singer
- José Bové - Syndicalist
- Jean Ferrat - Singer
- Lionel Jospin - Politician
- Jean Cocteau - Dramatist, poet and filmmaker
- Luc Besson - filmmaker
- Tino Rossi - Singer
- Pierre de Coubertin - Pedagogue and founder of the modern Olympic Games.
- Jean Renoir – Actor and film director
- Gérard Philipe - Actor
- Jean-Paul Sartre – Author
- Catherine Deneuve - Actress
- Serge Reggiani - Singer
- Gérard Depardieu - Actor
- Françoise Dolto - Psychoanalyst
