***Does anyone know any controversial or famous French people?***?

Loius XIV (Louis-Dieudonné de Bourbon) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715)

Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu (September 9, 1585 – December 4, 1642)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778)

François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778)

Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (6 May 1758–28 July 1794)

Jean-Paul Marat (May 24, 1743 – July 13, 1793)

Georges Jacques Danton (October 26, 1759 – April 5, 1794)

Napoleon I (born Napoleone di Buonaparte, later Napoléon Bonaparte)[1] (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) (actually Corsican, but family French of Italian origin)

Jules Mazarin, born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino (July 14, 1602 – March 9, 1661)

Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784)

Jean Calvin (born Jean Cauvin) (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564)

Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus) (14 December 1503 or 21 December 1503[1] – 2 July 1566)

Marie Curie (born Maria Skłodowska; also known as Maria Skłodowska-Curie; November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934) and Pierre Curie (May 15, 1859 – died April 19, 1906)

Louis Pasteur (December 27 1822 – September 28, 1895)

César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck (December 10, 1822 – November 8, 1890)

Victor-Marie Hugo (February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885)

Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (6 May 1868, Paris, France – 15 April 1927)

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533–September 13, 1592)

Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662)

Alexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802—December 5, 1870)

Alexandre Dumas, fils (July 27, 1824 – November 27, 1895)

Louis Couperin (c. 1626 – 1661)

François Couperin ("Couperin le Grand") (November 10, 1668 – September 11, 1733)

Jean-François Dandrieu (c. 1682 – January 17, 1738)

André Raison (born before 1650 – 1719)

Nicolas de Grigny (baptized September 8, 1672 – November 30, 1703)

Jean-Henri d'Anglebert (April 1, 1629 – April 23, 1691)

Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (circa 1601 – 1672, Paris)

Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue (1631 – July 6, 1702)

Louis Marchand (February 2, 1669 – February 17, 1732)

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (December 19, 1676 - October 26, 1749)

Jean-Baptiste de Lully (Giovanni Battista di Lulli) (November 28, 1632 – March 22, 1687)

Louis Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803 – March 8, 1869)

Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini (September 8 or September 14[1], 1760 – March 15, 1842)

Frédéric François Chopin (March 1, 1810[1] – October 17, 1849)

Gioachino Antonio Rossini [1] (Pesaro, February 29, 1792 – Passy, November 13, 1868)

Charles-François Gounod (June 18, 1818 – October 18, 1893)

Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921)

Louis Victor Jules Vierne (8 October 1870-2 June 1937)

Eugène Gigout (23 March 1844 – 9 December 1925)

Maurice Duruflé (January 11, 1902 – June 16, 1986)

Marcel Dupré (May 3, 1886 – May 30, 1971)

Olivier Messiaen (December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992)

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (January 7, 1899–January 30, 1963)

Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin (1690-1768)

Jean-Philippe Rameau (September 25, 1683 - September 12, 1764)

Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor (February 21, 1844 – March 12, 1937)

Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baronne Dudevant (Georges Sand) (July 1, 1804 – June 8, 1876)

Jacques-Louis David (August 30, 1748 – December 29, 1825)

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903)

Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926)

Édouard Manet (January 23, 1832 – April 30, 1883)

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917)

Alexandre-César-Léopold (Georges) Bizet (October 25, 1838 – June 3, 1875)

François-Auguste-René Rodin (November 12, 1840 – November 17, 1917)

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (December 15, 1832 – December 27, 1923)

Jean-Martin Charcot (29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893)

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle (November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687)

Samuel de Champlain, (c. 1580 - 1635)

Jacques Cartier (1491–September 1, 1557)

Father Jacques Marquette (June 1, 1637–May 18, 1675)

Louis Joliet (September 21, 1645 – May 22, 1700)

Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert-DuMotier Lafayette (September 6, 1757 – May 20, 1834)

François Joseph Paul, marquis de Grasse Tilly, comte de Grasse (1722-January 14, 1788)

Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935)

Émile Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902)

Jacques (Jakob) Offenbach (20 June 1819– 5 October 1880)

Louis (Ludwig) Spohr (April 5, 1784 – October 22, 1859)

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, 1st Sovereign Prince de Bénévent (February 2, 1754 – May 17, 1838)

etc.

I like that Eleanor of Aquataine suggestion. What an interesting character.

If you are into women, how about Jeanne d'Arc? What a rich story. Separating the romantic from the historic would be interesting.

What about Rousseau. The declaration of the Rights of Man rocked the world.

Or Charlemagne. There may have been no greater king in all of medeival Europe.

Like bad guys? How about Cardinal Richelieu.

You could indeed tackle Bonaparte, but that's a tough one. Be prepared for tons of reading. The international entanglements of the time could overwhelm you. But there have been few people in history more interesting.

Or someone in the technology field? Gustav Eiffel, M. Curie. your project could be more visual and describe why it was important.

So there are some ideas for you.

Good luck!

Joseph Fouché

►►Joseph Fouché is sometimes described as the architect of the police state. His ideas and practice still form the foundation of much of the world’s intelligence gathering systems. Indeed the old intelligence maxim: ‘Where metrication rules Fouché follows’ is probably as true today as when it was conceived some 200 years ago.

Apart from the USA, France has the highest spend of any country upon intelligence and counter intelligence. France sees it as money well spent. In the EU and the World at large her covert services have given France grandeur and influence out of all proportion to her current comparative status.

It is no co-incidence then that until Tony Blair took the U.K. into Afghanistan and Iraq that Islamic terrorist organisation saw French intelligence as their number two opposition after the USA. Indeed, Al Qaeda perceived France to be its principal enemy largely because how France props up the anti-Islamist governments of North Africa, notably Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco....◄◄

http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/fouche.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Fouch%C3%A9

Madame Marie Curie, pioneer physicist.

General de Gaulle, wartime leader and controversial politician.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, painter and artistic revolutionary.

Hector Berlioz, composer and writer.

Sufficient material is available on all these people without you being overwhelmed.

Try Joan of Arc. And you'll be able to learn approximately her via a e-book approximately her written through none instead of Mark Twain, who stated his e-book on Joan of Arc used to be " as valued at all his different books placed in combination". ("Mark Twain: The Man and His Work"; University of Oklahoma Press, 1935, 1967). God Bless you.

easy; Eleanor d'Aquitaine. She's fascinating, and my heroine. Plenty of information available, and she had a pretty interesting life--wife of St. Louis, and mother of Richard the Lionhearted--check her out on first wikipedia if you're not convinced.

Napoleon Bonaparte!!! The only person who has had more books written about him is Jesus.