An annual survey of France's 500 wealthiest individuals and families published this week showed their fortunes grew 15 per cent in 2013, news that has added resonance given the huge stir caused by French economist Thomas Piketty's recent call for a global wealth tax to combat rising inequality.
Corporate success - most leading French companies make their money outside France's stalled economy - mainly lay behind the rise, which followed a 25 per cent increase in 2012, according to Challenges magazine, which compiled the list.
The top 10 remained dominated by familiar names, reflecting especially France's leading position in the global luxury and fashion business.
Bernard Arnault, founder and chief executive of LVMH, kept his number one perch as his fortune rose to €27bn, up 10 per cent, closely followed by Liliane Bettencourt and her family, main shareholders of the L'Oreal cosmetics empire, with €26bn.
The main movers in the top 10 were Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, owners of Chanel, who rose to fifth from eighth position with a combined worth of €14.5bn, according to Challenges' estimates.
The 500 - all French nationals - were worth a total of €390bn, a figure that has doubled since a deep slide in the financial crisis of 2008. The number of billionaires has also doubled in the same time to hit 67 in 2013.
France remains one of the least unequal of developed countries in terms of income distribution, thanks in large part to its big social welfare system. Its Gini coefficient after taxes and transfers, where zero denotes complete equality and one denotes complete inequality, is 0.29, compared with 0.34 in the UK and 0.38 in the US, according to latest OECD figures.
But Mr Piketty wrote in his book Capital in the 21st century that the share of national wealth owned by the richest 1 per cent of the population had risen in France as well as elsewhere in recent decades, up to 25 per cent from 23 per cent in 1970.
With a socialist government in office, might France not be the first to answer Mr Piketty's call for heavier taxes on the rich to redress inequalities? President Francois Hollande slapped a 75 per cent marginal rate on incomes above €1m and increased France's wealth tax and taxes on capital since he took office two years ago.
But, faced with a nationwide fury over taxes, he has gone into sharp reverse, now promising cuts for businesses and households from next year. The 75 per cent measure looks as though it will be in place for only two years. Asked about Mr Piketty's weighty book recently, Michel Sapin, the finance minister, joked he had not read it. "It's too heavy for me - too big."
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