Abstract

France is in a very peculiar situation concerning fertility. Contrarily to many other European countries, France is facing a significant fertility recovery during the past five years and maintains a 1,9 fertility rate. No clear and uncontested explanation justifies this relatively positive situation. The more convincing argument, from our point of view, could be the permanent public investment to facilitate conciliation between work and childcare responsibility. In this contribution, we propose to come back on three main issues: the main trends of family policy over the past century; the demographical background of the French situation these last years and the main orientation of the childcare policy. We will conclude by some reflections about the main challenges for the future and their links with intergenerational issues. 1. French investment in demographical issues: A permanent investment French family policy is generally considered as one of the most explicit and intensive one in Europe [2]. It is even stated that the “family issue ” could be the basis of the French social security system, just as poverty was a cornerstone of the Anglo-Saxon Welfare State and workers ’ status that of Germany’s Sozial Staat. Family