You can find tons of free French records online without having to create any account. Birth, marriage, death, census, military, war, notary records, to name a few. All of these records are organized by department (département), and each département has its own website, with its own digitized archives (archives numérisées). So in order to start your research, you will need to know what département your ancestor was located in. For this, visit the “Regions and Departments of France” section.
Regions and Departments of France
Understanding the structure of France to determine where to search geographically (Regions, departments, postal codes)
Vital Records (Parish and Civil registration)
How to find records of baptisms, births, marriage bans, marriages, deaths, burials, tables décennales
Military Archives (Registres matricules)
Discover your ancestors through all the information captured in their military records
Census records (Recensement de la population)
Discover where your ancestors lived and look it up on old postcards and Google Maps!
French Republican Calendar (Calendrier républicain)
Understanding Dates During the French Revolution (from 1792 to 1806)
Destruction of the archives in Paris (May 1871)
A lot of archives were destroyed during the Commune of Paris. Here are some options to try to locate your ancestor
Tables de succession et absences
Alphabetical records of deceased or absent individuals in order to locate death dates and inheritance records
Nobility and Heraldry (Noblesse et héraldique)
How to research French Nobility (without losing your head)
My French Lineage 