François Jacob won a Nobel Prize in Physiology for discoveries involving the regulatory activities of bacteria.

• Biologist, Scientist, Physiologist
  (1920–2013)

French writer and physician François Rabelais wrote the comic masterpiece Gargantua and Pantagruel, which is praised for its use of language and satire.

• Priest, Author, Doctor
  (c. 1494–c. 1553)

French writer and poet André Breton is best known as one of the founders of the Surrealist movement in literature and art.

• Publisher, Literary Critic, Philosopher, Author, Artist, Poet, Journalist, Editor
  (1896–1966)

Henri Becquerel was a French physicist best known for his work on radioactivity, for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1903.

• Scientist, Physicist, Academic
  (1852–1908)

Albert Camus was a French-Algerian writer best known for his absurdist works, including The Stranger (1942) and The Plague (1947). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.

• Author, Journalist, Playwright
  (1913–1960)

Anatole France was a French writer of satire and fantasy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921.

• Literary Critic, Philosopher, Author
  (1844–1924)

French novelist Claude Simon’s novels include The Wind; The Grass; and The Flanders Road. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985.

• Author
  (1913–2005)

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates French author Victor Hugo Hugo who completed ‘Les Miserables’ on this day in 1862, almost 20 years after he began writing his masterpiece.

• Poet, Playwright, Author
  (1802–1885)