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Photo credits
- Portraits come from Wikimedia Commons. The photographers are:
- Christian Lambiotte / European Communities (Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Jacques Chirac) · CC BY 4.0
- Comet Photo AG, Zürich / ETH-Bibliothek (François Mitterrand) · CC BY-SA 4.0
- European People's Party (Nicolas Sarkozy) · CC BY 2.0
- Web Summit (François Hollande) · CC BY 2.0
- The other 20 portraits are in the public domain or released under CC0.
Rules & what counts
French Presidents Quiz: Rules & What Counts
The president of France is the head of state of the French Republic. The office began in 1848, and 25 people have held it. This quiz shows a portrait of each one.
The grid has 25 cards, in order. Each card wears its number up front, and solving it reveals the name, the years in office and the republic.
Most players land de Gaulle and the presidents since 1981. The run-killer is the Third Republic: 14 presidents between 1871 and 1940, most of them unknown outside France.
How to play
- Just start typing. The quiz checks your answer at every keystroke. There is no submit button.
- The surname alone works where it names one president: "chirac", "pompidou" and "thiers" each solve a card. Paul Doumer needs his first name, because "doumer" is also the start of Doumergue.
- Common misspellings, nicknames and English forms count: "Mitterand", "Sarko", "Napoleon III", "VGE" and "MacMahon" all solve their card. Accents are optional.
- The timer starts at your first keystroke and counts up. Give Up ends the run and shows every portrait you missed. Progress saves automatically.
What counts in this quiz
- All 25 people who have held the office of president, from Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in 1848 to Emmanuel Macron today.
- The count covers four republics: 1 president of the Second Republic, 14 of the Third, 2 of the Fourth and 8 of the Fifth.
- Portraits are freely licensed Wikimedia Commons files: studio photographs and official portraits for the early presidents, press and government photographs for the recent ones.
What's not included, and why
- Acting presidents have no card. Alain Poher, the president of the Senate, stood in twice: in 1969 after de Gaulle resigned and in 1974 after Pompidou died.
- Philippe Pétain was never president. He led the French State at Vichy from 1940 to 1944, so he has no card, and no card covers those years.
- Kings and emperors have no card. Napoleon I never held the office. Louis-Napoléon has a card for his term as president, not for his reign as Napoleon III.
- Prime ministers have no card unless they also became president. Édouard Philippe, Dominique de Villepin and Lionel Jospin are not on the board.
Good to know
- Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the first president and the only one to end the republic he led. He seized power in 1851 and became Emperor Napoleon III a year later.
- Paul Deschanel served seven months in 1920. He fell from a moving train at night in his pyjamas and resigned that September.
- Two presidents were assassinated in office: Sadi Carnot in 1894 and Paul Doumer in 1932. Félix Faure and Georges Pompidou died in office.
- François Mitterrand served 14 years, two full seven-year terms, the longest time in the office. Since 2002 a term lasts five years.
- Charles de Gaulle wrote the constitution of the Fifth Republic in 1958, became its first president in 1959, and resigned in 1969 after losing a referendum.