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A note on classification: By any system of measurement, Paris is the biggest city in France. That much is clear; but after that, classifying French towns and cities in order of size is an art, rather than a science, since the results depend very much on the criteria used. Different French statistical data use different  yardsticks, and "cities" can be classed in several different ways, notably by "urban area" (aire urbaine) , by "urban zone" (zone urbaine), or by borough (commune).

These terms are defined as follows:
"Urban area"  - A metropolitan area, i.e. the whole area which can be viewed as a coherent economic/employment unit.
"Urban zone" - The "conurbation", the densely populated heart of that area,  or "agglomération".
"Commune" - A borough, the basic unit of local administration in France, with its municipal council.

To make a comparison with London, "Greater London" would be an urban area, the "London postal area" would be an urban zone, and the "City of London" would be a commune.
 
Table 1 :  
All rankings refer to cities in Metropolitan France (i.e. France-in-Europe, excluding overseas departments and territories).

The 40 biggest cities in France, ranked by metropolitan area
(Population figures from 1999). Regional capital cities are indicated in bold.
Column D shows the population of the "urban zone" at the heart of each area, i.e. the city and its contiguous suburbs. If classed by the population of their urban zones, the order of the "biggest cities" in France is slightly different.

A B C D E F
Rank City Population Metropolitan area or urban area Population
by urban zone or conurbation
Region Departments
1 Paris* 11174743 !11,174,743 9,644,507 Ile de France 75,77,78,91,92,93,94,95
2 Lyon* 1,648,216 1,349,772 Rhône- Alpes 69 - Rhône
3 Marseille*
Aix-en-Provence
1,516,340 1,348,832 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 13 - Bouches du Rhône
4 Lille
Roubaix–Tourcoing
 1,143,125 1,000,900 Nord-Pas-de-Calais 59 - Nord
5 Toulouse  964,797 761,090 Midi-Pyrénées 31 - Garonne
6 Nice  933,080 888,784 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 06 - Alpes Maritimes
7 Bordeaux  925,253 753,931 Aquitaine 33 - Gironde
8 Nantes  804,833 544,932 Pays de la Loire 44 - Loire Atlantique
9 Strasbourg  612,104 427,245 Alsace 67 - Bas Rhin
10 Toulon  564,823 519,640 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 83 - Var
11 Douai–Lens  552,694 518,727 Nord-Pas-de-Calais 59 Nord & 62 Pas de Calais- 
12 Rennes  520,772 272,263 Brittany 35 - Ille et Vilaine
13 Rouen  518,316 389,862 Normandy 76 - Seine Maritime
14 Grenoble  514,559 419,334 Rhône -Alpes 38 - Isère
15 Montpellier  459,916 287,981 Languedoc-Roussillon 34 - Hérault
16 Metz  429,588 322,526 Lorraine 57 - Moselle
17 Nancy  410,508 331,363 Lorraine 54- Meurthe et Moselle
18 Clermont-Ferrand  409,558 258,541 Auvergne 63- Puy de Dôme
19 Valenciennes  399,677 357,395 Nord-Pas-de-Calais 59- Nord
20 Tours  376,374 297,631 Centre 37- Inder & Loire 
21 Caen  370,652 199,490 Normandy 14 - Calvados
22 Orléans  355,811 263,292 Centre 45- Loiret
23 Angers  332,624 226,843 Pays de la Loire 49 - Maine et Loire
24 Dijon  326,631 236,953 Burgundy 21 - Côte d'Or
25 Saint Etienne  321,703 291,960 Rhône-Alpes 42 - Loire
26 Brest  303,484 210,055 Brittany 29 - Finistère
27 Le Havre  296,773 248,547 Normandy 76 - Seine Maritime
28 Le Mans  293,159 194,825 Pays de la Loire 72 - Sarthe
29 Reims  291,735 215,581 Champagne-Ardenne 51 - Marne
30 Avignon  290,466 253,580 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 84 - Vaucluse
31 Mulhouse  271,024 234,445 Alsace 68 - Bas Rhin
32 Amiens  270,867 160,815 Picardy 80 - Somme
33 Béthune  266,590 259,198 Nord-Pas-de-Calais 62 - Pas de Calais
34 Dunkerque  265,974 191,173 Nord-Pas-de-Calais 59 - Nord
35 Perpignan  249,016 162,678 Languedoc-Roussillon 66 - Pyrénées Orientales
36 Limoges  247,944 173,299 Limousin 87 - Haute Vienne
37 Besançon  222,381 134,376 Franche-Comté 25 - Doubs
38 Nîmes  221,455 148,889 Languedoc-Roussillon 30 - Gard
39 Pau 214,820 181,413 Aquitaine 64 Pyrénées Atlantiques
40 Bayonne  213,969 178,965 Aquitaine 64 Pyrénées Atlantiques

* Note: Most of the larger metropolitan areas,  particularly those with over 500,000 inhabitants, contain more than one town (commune) with over 80,000 inhabitants. The Paris urban area, for instance, contains a number of large communes. Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, is included in the Lyon metro area and urban zone, even though the commune ranks 27th in its own right when French "communes" are ranked by population.


Table 2
Other towns/cities in metropolitan France with an urban zone (conurbation) of over 100,000 inhabitants.

Rank City Population of
the urban zone
Region Departments
41 Saint-Nazaire 136 886 Pays de la Loire 44-Loire Atlantique
42 Annecy 136 815 Rhône-Alpes 73 - Savoie
43 Thionville 130 480 Lorraine 57 Meurthe et Moselle
44 Troyes 128 945 Champagne-Ardenne 11 - Aube
45 Poitiers 119 371 Poitou-Charentes 86 Vienne
46 Valence 117 448 Rhône-Alpes 26 - Drôme
47 Lorient 116 174 Brittany 56 - Morbihan
48 La Rochelle 116 157 Poitou-Charentes 16 - Charente Maritime
49 Chambéry 113 457 Rhône-Alpes 73 - Savoie
50 Montbéliard 113 059 Franche-Comté 25 - Doubs
51 Annemasse  106 673 Rhône-Alpes 74 Haute Savoie
52 Calais 104 852 Nord-Pas-de-Calais 62 - Pas de Calais
53 Angoulême 103 746 Poitou-Charentes 17 - Charente



Table 3
Other towns in metropolitan France with a commune (borough) of over 50,000 inhabitants.
This table only lists those boroughs of over 50,000 inhabitants that are not already included in a metropolitan area or an urban zone listed in the two tables above.
Hence the gaps in the ranking, which are taken by large communes that are essentially suburbs, and as such already included (though not mentioned by name) in  the urban areas or urban zones listed in tables 1 and 2.
The classification by "commune" is only meaningful for country towns where a single commune accounts for the bulk of the "town". For larger urban zones, the commune population figures can be very misleading. The fact that "Paris intra muros" has 2.12 million inhabitants is of little relevance, hardly more than the fact that the population of the "City of London" in 2009 is a little over 8,000 inhabitants.

Rank City or town Population 2006
(commune)
Region Department(s)
58 Antibes 75,820 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Alpes-Maritimes
60 Calais 74,888 Nord-Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais
64 Béziers 72,245 Languedoc-Roussillon Hérault
65 Bourges 70,828 Centre Cher
66 Cannes 70 610
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Alpes-Maritimes
71 Colmar 65 713 Alsace Haut-Rhin
73 Valence 65 263 Rhône-Alpes Drôme
74 Quimper 64 902 Brittany Finistère
75 Ajaccio 63 723 Corsica Corse-du-Sud
86 Niort 58 066 Poitou-Charentes Deux-Sèvres
93 St Quentin 56 792 Picardy Aisne
96 Beauvais 55 481 Picardy Oise
98 Cholet 54 632 Pays de la Loire Maine-et-Loire
99 Montauban 53 941 Midi-Pyrénées Tarn-et-Garonne
103 Vannes 53,079 Brittany Morbihan
105 Charleville-Mézières 51,997 Champagne-Ardenne Ardennes
106 Arles 51,970 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Bouches du Rhône
112 Evreux 51,239 Upper Normandy Eure
113 Laval 51,233 Pays de la Loire Mayenne
116 Annecy 51,023 Rhône-Alpes Haute Savoie
117 Belfort 50,417 Franche-Comté Territoire de Belfort
118 Narbonne 46,510 Languedoc-Roussillon Aude
119 La Roche sur Yon 50,717 Pays de la Loire Vendée
122 Brive la Gaillarde 50,009 Limousin Corrèze

Population data from the French National Statistical Office, the INSEE.

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