The Eurozone economy picked up in the first quarter of the year, overtaking Britain’s GDP figures.
France’s turnaround was among the most remarkable – its economy grew by 0.6 per cent in the three-month period, double the estimated 0.3 per cent in the UK.
Under Francoise Hollande, the French economy dived into recession across 2012 and 2013.
Maxime Sbaihi, an economist at Bloomberg, said that France would need to keep repeating its strong first quarter performance “to reverse the investment decline and finally start bringing down a record-high unemployment rate”.
Mr Vistesen said: “Overall, this is a strong GDP report but it is also distorted by a number of one-off factors. The increase in consumer spending is encouraging, but the underlying trend in private investment growth remains poor.”
Just last month economists described France as “lost in stagnation”, as surveys of its private sector showed the country lagging the Eurozone’s other large members.
In the final quarter of 2014 the economy did not grow at all, before a spurt in the three months to March.
Other troubled economies also picked up. Italy registered growth of 0.3 per cent, compared with flat or negative GDP numbers in the previous three quarters.
Spanish growth accelerated from 0.7 per cent to 0.9 per cent, and by a healthy 2.6 per cent in the past 12 months.
By contrast Germany saw GDP growth slow from 0.7 per cent at the end of 2014 to 0.3 per cent.
Statistics agency Destatis, which compiled the figures, said: “The German economy continued to grow at a slightly slower pace.”
Analysts had expected weaker German GDP figures, but had not appreciated the magnitude of the coming slowdown. Economists had pencilled in growth of 0.5pc for the period.
The wider Eurozone economy grew by 0.4pc in the first three months of the year.