In the first half of the twentieth century, the French school of geography was very famous around the world, based on the reputations of its leading geographers (Vidal de la Blache, Martonne, Demangeon, etc.). French geography in the early twenty-first century, however, shows rather different perspectives from the Vidalien tradition of geography. In this paper, I attempt to describe some recent directions of this new French geography, mainly from the end of the 1970s. I pay special attention to eight French geographers to indicate the strong points of the present French geography, i.e. R. Brunet, Y. Lacoste, P. Claval, J.-R. Pitte, A. Berque, J. Lévy, R. Knafou, and C. Grataloup. These geographers have contributed to the recent renewal of French geography, especially in the areas of regional geography (la géographie chorématique), geopolitics, cultural geography, geography of tourism, and historical geography. I also mention new aspects of French geographical education.