This short article explores the history of contraception in France from the 16th to the 19th century. Several studies have already been dedicated to the subject about which nothing definite is yet known, except the important role played by the Church against contraception. Contraception was always practiced but only outside marital life, and had practically no influence on demography. After the 17th century young people, at least in the middle and higher classes, started to marry after 20 (instead of during adolescence) and to educate their children, thus bringing about a relatively small, nuclear family. Coitus interruptus was, later on, seen as a rationalization of the sexual act, and certainly helped to bring about a decrease in fertility beginning at the end of the 18th century. The same phenomenon took place in England, although on a smaller scale.