Events from the year 1842 in France.
Incumbents
Monarch – Louis Philippe I
Events
8 May - Versailles train crash at Meudon, results in the deaths of at least 55 passengers. 9 July - Legislative election held.
Births
January to June
31 January - Marie-Charles David de Mayréna, adventurer (died 1890) 13 March - Joseph Valentin Boussinesq, mathematician and physicist (died 1929) 18 March - Stéphane Mallarmé, poet and critic (died 1898) 25 March - Jean Marie Charles Abadie, ophthalmologist (died 1932) 4 April - Édouard Lucas, mathematician (died 1891) 17 April - Maurice Rouvier, statesman (died 1911) 10 June - Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy, painter and sculptor (died 1923)
July to December
30 July - Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, historian (died 1923) 14 August - Jean Gaston Darboux, mathematician (died 1917) 25 August - Édouard Louis Trouessart, zoologist (died 1927) 28 August - Placide Louis Chapelle, Archbishop in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans (died 1905) 30 September - Auguste-René-Marie Dubourg, Archbishop of Rennes and Cardinal (died 1921) 6 October - Gustave Charles Fagniez, historian and economist (died 1927) 8 December - Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly, astronomer (died 1926)
Deaths
January to June
7 January - Charles Berny d'Ouvillé, miniaturist (born 1775) 19 January - Joseph Jérôme, Comte Siméon, jurist and politician (born 1749) 23 March - Stendhal, writer (born 1783) 30 March - Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, painter (born 1755) 8 May - Jules Dumont d'Urville, explorer and French Navy officer, and his wife Adèle, killed in Versailles rail accident (born 1790) 15 May - Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases, atlas-maker, member of Napoleon's entourage and member of the military (born 1766) 24 June - Jean-Baptiste Prosper Jollois, engineer (born 1776)
July to December
13 July - Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, Prince Royal of France (born 1810) 19 July - Pierre Joseph Pelletier, chemist (born 1788) 25 July - Dominique Jean Larrey, military surgeon (born 1766) 20 October - Alexandre de Laborde, antiquary, liberal politician and writer (born 1773)