It is thought that individual groups of Bulgars reached modern France in the Migration Period (5th–6th century).
[3] In the 12th and 13th centuries, Bulgarian heretics came to France spreading the ideas of Bogomilism, which provided much of the theological basis of Catharism.
Bulgarian public figure Nikola Pikolo spent the years from 1840 to his death in 1865 in Paris.
[3] From 1879 on, France was the favoured destination for Bulgarians seeking higher education abroad, with particular domination in the fields of pharmacy and medicine.
[3] Despite the sizable distance between France and the Balkans, there are reports of Bulgarian gardeners around Metz as early as 1870.