| Sumario: | Employing information gathered chiefly from the archives of France's Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (MAE), this article examines official French perceptions of the October Crisis, and how these were influenced by evolving attitudes in Paris regarding Quebec and Canada. It is argued that French official perceptions of the October Crisis were shaped foremost by a belief that arose in the 1960s among elements in the French political class that Quebec was evolving toward some form of international sovereignty. The October Crisis, thus, was perceived in French circles as a manifestation of Quebec's larger political evolution; Ottawa's hard-line response was seen as misguided and ultimately exacerbating the crisis, and as consistent with federalist resistance to Quebec épanouissement. These French perceptions were reinforced by the invocation of the War Measures Act. The result was a rather ambiguous response from Paris that condemned FLQ actions out of a general opposition to political violence, but that was tempered by a concern that the reaction of Canadian and Quebec authorities, notably the former, not be permitted to interfere with the French view of the Québécois interest.
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