I don't know about all time but since 1980's is generally speaking the golden age of music, two favourites from the era are Sauver l'amour (1985) by Daniel Balavoine...
...and Souviens-toi de m'oublier (1981) by Catherine Deneuve with heavy involvement from Serge Gainsbourg.
Yes of course!!!! I prefer 10000Hz Legend but Moon Safari is great!!! By the way: I really like the video version of Kelly Watch The Stars and I can't find it anywhere. Was it ever issued officially?
Camille Le Fil 2004 'Le Fil', which translates roughly as 'The Thread', is a kind of concept album in that there is a hum or drone in note B that Camille keeps up through the whole album, acting as the aforementioned thread, keeping the whole album sewn together. The songs present such a multiplicity of sounds, that your ears won't know what to do with themselves, and your brain will constantly be playing catchup.
One of my favourite Magma offshoots (or actually a Weidorje offshoot): Jean Philippe Goude: Drones (1980)
One of the finest albums to come out of the French Touch scene, Tempovision by Etienne De Crécy. The single off it is sheer perfection, Am I Wrong (featuring a brilliantly deployed sample of Millie Jackson singing the phrase "Am I wrong to hunger" from her rendition of If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right). It had a witty animated video that is a détourner of the question of desiring forbidden love to that of questioning the ethics of what we eat:
Another jazz-funk record that's been sampled a ton, originally was a soundtrack to a really interesting animated film:
@Kowalski This Jean-Luc Ponty album from 1978 always feels like Air to me. A sweet cross of Moon Safari and Virgin Suicides. I love Air and my experiences in the late 1990's would have been so different without their music. If you haven't heard this, give it a shot.
I'll fulfill the "more recent and currently active solo female artists" quotient with a few posts... First up: Zazie. Each of Zazie's albums is solid overall and has four or five true gems, so I could have chosen from a few favorites (La Zizanie, Rodéo), but I'll go with Totem from 2007 - pretty great from start to finish with a few of her best songs (Je Suis Un Homme, Ça, Totem, J'étais Là). She always has something to say, often with fairly intricate lyrics. Here's the video for Je Suis Un Homme, which sadly only gets more and more relevant every day. Plus bonus Spanish sub-titles!
Liane Foly: Les Petites Notes (1993) This is a great '90s jazz-pop-vocal album - kind of like a French Swing Out Sister album. It was so successful that many of the songs were also later recorded in English for an international release, with the album retitled Sweet Mystery. It didn't really get noticed. I'm pretty sure this was by far Liane Foly's most successful album - she's still active but with far less musical output over the last decade than in her peak career years ('80s to '00s). Here's the oh-so-'90s video for one of the singles, Laisse Pleurer Les Nuages.
Jean-Jaques Goldman - for me it's the song 'Nuit' which he did as Fredericks, Goldman, Jones in 1990...just an absolutely stunning and atmospheric track which has stayed with me forever. Sad that Carole Fredericks passed away back in June 2001, what a voice. I also really enjoy several of his albums apart from the FGJ debut (self-titled) - Rouge is great (quite progressive), as well as En Passant. Also a big fan of the Vanessa Paradis album from 1990 'Variations Sur Le Meme T'Aime' which is a pop masterpiece, with lyrics from Serge Gainsbourg no less. The music is varied and very well arranged and produced - could do with a remaster on CD however!