Events from the year 1880 in France.

• President: Jules Grévy^[1]
• President of the Council of Ministers: Charles de Freycinet (until 23 September), Jules Ferry (starting 23 September)^[2]

• 29 June – France annexes Tahiti.^[3]
• Musée Carnavalet is opened to the public as a museum of Paris history.
• Discovery of piezoelectricity by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.^[4]

• 14 January – Pierre-Marie Gerlier, Cardinal (died 1965)^[5]
• 5 February – Gabriel Voisin, aviation pioneer (died 1973)^[6]
• 20 February – Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, aristocrat, novelist and poet (died 1923)^[7]
• 21 February – Pierre Chaumié, politician (died 1966)^[8]
• 17 April – Jacques Suzanne, painter, artist and explorer (died 1967)^[9]
• 25 May – Jean Alexandre Barré, neurologist (died 1967)^[10]
• 26 August – Guillaume Apollinaire, poet, writer and art critic (died 1918)^[11]
• 12 October – Marcel-Bruno Gensoul, admiral (d. 1973)^[12]
• 8 December – Clément-Emile Roques, Cardinal (died 1964)^[13]

• 4 January – Marthe Camille Bachasson, Count of Montalivet, statesman and Peer of France (born 1801)^[16]
• 17 January – Agenor, duc de Gramont, diplomat and statesman (born 1819)^[17]
• 31 January – Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac, journalist and politician (born 1806)^[18]
• 8 May – Gustave Flaubert, novelist (born 1821)^[19]
• 24 June – Jules Antoine Lissajous, mathematician (born 1822)^[20]
• 9 July – Paul Broca, physician, anatomist, and anthropologist (born 1824)^[21]
• 5 October - Jacques Offenbach, German composer (born 1819)^[22]
• 22 October - Alphonse Pénaud, aeronautical pioneer (born 1850)^[23]
• 10 November – Sabin Berthelot, naturalist and ethnologist (born 1794)^[24]
• 20 November – Léon Cogniet, painter (born 1794)^[25]
• 24 November – Napoléon Henri Reber, composer (born 1807)^[26]