Despise a long tradition of research in the Arctic region, French policy in the Arctic in appearance seems to be running backwards. President of the French Republic François Hollande presented France’s roadmap during the Arctic Circle in November 2015 in Reykjavik with the main objective being to increase the French Arctic presence in the political, diplomatic and scientific arenas. The formalised Arctic policy is based on four aspects with the environmental issue in the background: political, scientific, economic and environmental. The policy of France in the Arctic is integrated into those of its allies such as the German Federal Republic and the European Union with numerous close synergies. The sciences are one major key-dimension of French diplomacy in the Arctic.