France is often considered as a country that leads the way as an “exemplary country” in cultural policy. Scholars also talk about a specific “French Ministry of Culture Model”. In this article I discuss several characteristics of French cultural policy given by cultural policy researchers. Are these characteristics scientifically fruitful and/or valid? I have focused upon the following questions: (1) Is it true that France was the first country in Europe that established a ministry of culture; (2) how centralized is French cultural policy in reality; (3) how well founded is the conception that French cultural life is predominantly controlled by the Ministry of Culture, without any arm’s length between politics and the arts; (4) how powerful is the minister of culture personally, and is it still fruitful to talk about a “monarchistic” French cultural policy; (5) is it true that France has given high priority to culture in its government budgets since the establishment of a Ministry of Culture (1959), and that the cultural budget nearly doubled in 1982; (6) has French cultural policy generally disapproved of the “extended concept of culture”, and finally (7) was André Malraux really a great minister of culture? In the article I describe and discuss the development of French cultural policy historically, keeping the abovementioned questions in mind. I draw lines back to the 19th and early 20th century, but I focus particularly upon the period between 1945 and 1990. The article concludes that several more or less taken-for-granted characteristics of French cultural policy are debatable and ready for modification.