Miss France

Miss France is a national beauty pageant in France held annually in December. The competition was first held in 1920, and has been organized continuously since 1947. The trademark for the pageant is owned by the company Miss France SAS, and is a subsidiary of Endemol Shine France. The competition is aired on TF1.

The Miss France pageant was first organized in 1920, under the name La plus belle femme de France (The most beautiful woman of France), and was held for one additional year before being abandoned until 1927. That year, the competition was rebranded into Miss France, and was held annually until 1940, due to World War II. In 1947, following the end of the war, the competition was revived and has been held annually since. In 1954, Guy Lévy founded the Miss France Committee (comité Miss France) to organize the competition. Geneviève de Fontenay took over the Miss France Committee in 1981, until departing in 2007. Following the departure of de Fontenay, Sylvie Tellier served as the national director of Miss France until August 2022, when she was replaced by Cindy Fabre. In October 2021, Alexia Laroche-Joubert was announced as the new president of the Miss France Committee, working alongside Tellier and later Fabre. In March 2023, Frédéric Gilbert, a longtime producer of Miss France, was appointed by Laroche-Joubert as director-general. Laroche-Joubert departed from the Miss France Committee in December 2023, and was replaced by Gilbert.

Contestants of Miss France must meet a number of eligibility requirements and first win a regional title which qualifies them for the national competition, representing their region. A number of these regions also organize local competitions corresponding with cities and departments within the region, which must be won first before one can compete in the regional competition. The winner of Miss France resides in Paris during her year of reign in a rent-free apartment, in addition to winning a number of additional prizes and sponsorship deals while receiving a monthly salary. Typically, the winner represents France at either Miss Universe or Miss World, while her first runner-up competes at the other pageant. In some instances, the predecessor of the reigning titleholder would compete at the other pageant or the two would switch years in order to avoid any scheduling conflicts between their assigned international pageant and the next Miss France competition.

The current Miss France is Eve Gilles, who was crowned on 16 December 2023 at Miss France 2024. She had previously been crowned Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais 2023, and is the fourth woman from Nord Pas-de-Calais to win the title.

History
The Miss France was first organized in 1920, under the name La plus belle femme de France (The most beautiful woman of France). The competition was founded by journalist Maurice de Waleffe, who chose to have the winner be decided by French filmgoers. After more than 1,700 women applied for the competition, 49 finalists were chosen. The competition was held over the course of several weeks, with filmgoers being given a ballot with seven women, and asked to select their favorite. Agnès Souret was selected as the inaugural winner. The following year, the competition was held again, with Pauline Pô winning the competition. However, La plus belle femme de France was later abandoned after 1921.

Six years later the competition was revived under the name Miss France, with a new format organized by Robert and Jean Cousin. Miss France continued to be held annually until 1940, when World War II disrupted entertainment events. The competition later resumed in 1947, following the end of the war, and has been held annually since then. Geneviève de Fontenay, who had begun her career with the Miss France Committee in 1954, became its president in 1981, transforming it into a company, and bringing it to a live broadcast in 1986, when the competition became the first edition of Miss France to be broadcast live on national television on TF1, where it has remained since. In 2011, a competing competition, Miss Excellence France was launched by Geneviève de Fontenay after her resignation from the Miss France Society in April 2010.

In October 2021, Alexia Laroche-Joubert was announced as the new president of the Miss France Committee, working alongside Sylvie Tellier, the national director. In August 2022, Tellier was reported to have resigned her position as national director of Miss France, and was replaced by Cindy Fabre. Tellier continued to serve in an advisory role with the organization, until her departure at the conclusion of Miss France 2023. In March 2023, Frédéric Gilbert, a longtime producer of Miss France, was appointed by Laroche-Joubert as director-general. In November 2023, Laroche-Joubert announced she would resign from her leadership role with Miss France following the conclusion of Miss France 2024, due to her responsibilities as CEO of Banijay France; she was replaced by Gilbert as president upon her departure.

Osez le féminisme, a French feminist organization, sued Miss France and its parent company, Endemol Production, in 2021 for sexist and discriminatory regulations. The lawsuit argues that the contestants in the pageant should be considered employees of the competition, thereby forbidding Miss France and Endemol from engaging in discrimination. A Paris court later dismissed the group's claims and threw out the lawsuit in January 2023.

In April 2024, it was revealed that a museum dedicated to Miss France would open in the town of Saint-Raphaël in the Var department in 2025.

Contestants
Each year, contestants are chosen through a series of regional pageants held throughout metropolitan and overseas France in the summer and autumn before the national competition. Over time, the regions represented at Miss France have varied slightly. The following 30 regional pageants currently send contestants to Miss France:


 * Miss Alsace
 * Miss Aquitaine
 * Miss Auvergne
 * Miss Brittany
 * Miss Burgundy
 * Miss Centre-Val de Loire
 * Miss Champagne-Ardenne
 * Miss Corsica
 * Miss Côte d'Azur
 * Miss Franche-Comté
 * Miss French Guiana
 * Miss Guadeloupe
 * Miss Île-de-France
 * Miss Languedoc
 * Miss Limousin
 * Miss Lorraine
 * Miss Martinique
 * Miss Mayotte
 * Miss Midi-Pyrénées
 * Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais
 * Miss Normandy
 * Miss Pays de la Loire
 * Miss Picardy
 * Miss Poitou-Charentes
 * Miss Provence
 * Miss Réunion
 * Miss Roussillon
 * Miss Rhône-Alpes
 * Miss Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy
 * Miss Tahiti

The regional competitions are organized by regional committees, and contestants must reside in the region they choose to represent. Regional committees have their own discretion as to how they wish to field candidates for the regional competitions. Some choose to organize a number of local competitions corresponding to cities or departments within the region, while others use open casting processes. Public voting is used to select winners of both regional pageants and the national competition. The winner of the national competition subsequently receives a number of prizes, including a rent-free apartment in Paris, sponsorship deals, and a monthly salary.

Rules and eligibility
In order to compete in Miss France, contestants must meet the following eligibility requirements:

Contestants must:
 * Be legally female and of French nationality through birth or naturalization.
 * Be above age 18 on 1 November of the year of the competition.
 * Be at least 1.70m tall.
 * Have a clean criminal record.

Contestants must not:
 * Have had her image exploited in a manner that could be incompatible or pose an obstacle to the organizers' rights.
 * Have received cosmetic surgery or use appearance-altering products such as wigs or colored contact lenses.
 * Have ever posed partially or completely nude, including after the competition as well.
 * Have associated with political or religious propaganda while a regional titleholder.

The pageant's code of ethics also requires that contestants not engage in smoking or public alcohol consumption. Failure to comply with pageant rules carries a fine of 5,000 Euro.

Prior to Miss France 2023, contestants also could not have been married, divorced, or widowed; have children or have been pregnant; be above the age of 24 on 1 November of the year of the competition; or have visible tattoos or non-ear piercings.