2000 in France

The following lists events that happened during 2000 in France.

The year 2000 is in particular remembered in France by a media campaign on the conditions of detention of prisoners. A parliamentary board of inquiry was created. The conclusions of the report were that French prisons were both unhealthy and over-populated. The sanitary arrangements were considered to be scandalous. The government of Lionel Jospin launched a programme to renovate and build new prisons.

Incumbents

• President: Jacques Chirac
• Prime Minister: Lionel Jospin

Events

February

• 1 February – a 35-hour working week imposed on companies of over 20 employees (see also Working Time Directive).

June

• June – National Assembly votes in favour of changing the Presidential term to five years.

July

• 2 July – France wins the UEFA European Football Championship.
• 25 July – Air France Flight 4590 Concorde crashed outside Paris killing all 109 passengers and crew.

September

• 24 September – Constitutional Referendum is held on whether the presidential mandate should be reduced from seven to five years.

November

• 4 November – a demonstration is held in Paris for the abolition of prisons.

Undated

• Agora Fidelio – French alternative rock band is active, until 2012.

Births

• 16 February – Amine Gouiri, footballer
• 3 August – Léo Rispal, singer
• 8 August – Félix Auger-Aliassime, Canadian tennis player

Deaths

January to March

• 1 January – Jean-Claude Izzo, poet, playwright, screenwriter and novelist (b. 1945)
• 2 January – Henri René Guieu, science fiction writer (b. 1926)
• 3 February – Pierre Plantard, draughtsman, principal perpetrator of the Priory of Sion hoax (b. 1920)
• 5 February – Claude Autant-Lara, film director and later MEP (b. 1901)
• 11 February
  • Jacqueline Auriol, aviator who set several world speed records (b. 1917)
  • Roger Vadim, film director (b. 1928)
• 5 March – Lolo Ferrari, dancer, porn star, actress, and singer (b. 1963)

April to June

• 11 April – Pierre Ghestem, bridge and checkers player (b. 1922)
• 20 May – Jean-Pierre Rampal, flautist (b. 1922)
• 6 June – Frédéric Dard, writer (b. 1921)
• 22 June – Philippe Chatrier, tennis player (b. 1926)
• 25 June – Pascal Themanlys, poet, Zionist, and Kabbalist (b. 1909)
• 27 June – Pierre Pflimlin, politician and Prime Minister (b. 1907)
• 28 June – Sid Ahmed Rezala, French serial killer (b. 1979)

July to September

• 3 July – André Guinier, physicist (b. 1911)
• 17 July – Pascale Audret, actress (b. 1936)
• 18 July – René Chocat, basketball player (b. 1920)
• 22 July – Claude Sautet, author and film director (b. 1924)
• 10 August – Paul Badré, aircraft pilot and engineer (b. 1906)
• 14 August – Alain Fournier, computer graphics researcher (b. 1943)
• 26 August – Odette Joyeux, actress and writer (b. 1914)
• 20 September – Jeanloup Sieff, photographer (b. 1933)

October to December

• 10 November
  • Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Gaullist politician and Prime Minister (b. 1915)
  • Gérard Granel, philosopher and translator (b. 1930)
• 12 November – Franck Pourcel, composer, arranger and conductor of popular music and classical music (b. 1913)
• 16 November – Ahmet Kaya, Turkish–Kurdish folk singer, he was living in France since 1999 until his death. (b. 1957)
• 17 November – Louis Néel, physicist, the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1970 (b. 1904)
• 22 November – Théodore Monod, naturalist, explorer and humanist scholar (b. 1902)
• 25 November – Raymond Janot, politician
• 29 November – Bernard Pertuiset, neurosurgeon (b. 1920)
• 15 December – Jacques Goddet, sports journalist and Tour de France director (b. 1905)
• 28 December – Jacques Laurent, writer and journalist (b. 1919)

Full date unknown

• Pierre Allain, climber (b. 1904)
• Pierre Gabaye, composer (b. 1930)
• Antoine Guillaumont, archaeologist and Syriac scholar (b. 1915)
• Jean Vallette d'Osia, Lieutenant General (b. 1898)