French culture is derived from an ancient civilization composed of a complex mix of Celtic, Greco-Roman, and Germanic elements. Monuments, especially from the period of Roman occupation, are numerous and include the amphitheatre at Arles, the arénes in Paris, and the aqueduct at Pont du Gard. During the Middle Ages a rich culture developed, fostered in particular by scholars in monasteries and in universities and encouraged well into the 18th century by a system of royal and aristocratic patronage. From the early 1700s and with the development of a middle class, the bourgeoisie, culture became more generally accessible. This period, extending into the 18th century, was the age of the Enlightenment, of inquiry and question. Cultural activity remained largely centred on Paris, though certain provincial cities such as Aix-les-Bains or Lyon had an active life of their own. With free primary education compulsory by the late 19th century, basic literacy ensured that the general cultural level was raised.

The culture of France has profoundly influenced that of the entire Western world, particularly in the areas of art and letters, and Paris has long been regarded as the fountainhead of French culture. France first attained cultural preeminence in Europe during the Middle Ages; later, the wealth of the French crown in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries provided a subsidization of art on a scale comparable to that of the papacy in Rome, attracting to Paris many of Europe’s most talented artists and artisans. Wealth also created a leisure class, which had both the time and the means for developing elegance in dress, manners, furnishings, and architecture. French styles still pervade much of Western culture. In the 20th century French cinema assumed a leading world position, particularly in the 1960s with the nouvelle vague (“new wave”) group of film directors, such as Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, and François Truffaut.

French literature has a long and rich history. Traditionally it is held to have begun in 842 with the Oath of Strasbourg, sworn to by Louis the German and Charles the Bald. The Middle Ages are noted in particular for epic poems such as La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland), the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes, and lyric poetry expressing romantic love. In the 16th century the Renaissance flourished, and figures such as the poet Pierre de Ronsard, the satirist and humorist Rabelais, and Michel de Montaigne, credited with inventing the essay, were to become internationally acknowledged. French Neoclassical drama reached its apotheosis during the next hundred years in the tragedies of Pierre Corneille and Racine. During the same period, Molière displayed his vast and varied talents in the theatre, particularly as a writer of comedies; Jean de La Fontaine produced moralistic verse in his Fables; and Mme de La Fayette created the classic La Princesse de Clèves, generally considered the first French psychological novel. Voltaire, Denis Diderot, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau dominated the 18th century, especially with their philosophical writings, but they contributed in a major way to all genres, Voltaire's novel Candide being singularly notable. Other authors of the period included the playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, for works such as Le Mariage de Figaro, and Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, for his epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses