History of Chaos from a French Perspective

This review tries to explain how Chaos theory developed in France in the late seventies-early eighties, not as the result of a planned attempt to bolster a field but, as often in human matters, as a result of an unlikely convergence of various events, as well as of a long tradition in the study of nonlinear phenomena that can be traced back to Poincare. Some general reflexions will be presented on the connection between the way Science and research are organized and the way things really work.