Ridiculously Romantic Ways to Tell Someone You Love Them in French That Aren’t ‘Je t’aime’

Je suis tombé sous ton charme

Popularised by the raw acoustic charm of French singer-songwriter Christophe Mae, this phrase literally means, ‘I have fallen under your charm’, and is a sure way to steal someone’s heart.

Je tiens à toi

These four words literally mean, ‘I hold on to you’. However, this phrase doesn’t just mean that you are holding onto someone’s hand. It’s more like the phrase, ‘I hold you dearly’, or ‘I really care about you’, and is just as powerful, if not more so, than Je t’aime.

Avec toi, je vois la vie en rose

This gorgeous line is inspired by Edith Piaf’s most famous love song, ‘La Vie En Rose’, and means, ‘With you, I see the world through rose-coloured glasses’, that is, everything is perfect when you’re by my side.

Si tu pouvais lire dans mon coeur, tu verrais la place où je t’ai mise

This declaration of love is from Gustave Flaubert’s Lettres à Louise Colet, and the English equivalent would be the enigmatic phrase, ‘If only you could read in my heart the place where I have put you.’

Tu es ma raison de vivre

Unlike some of the more archaic confessions from this list, this phrase still sees the light of day in the 21st century, and translates as, ‘You are my reason for living’.

Je t’appartiens corps et âme

Frédéric Beigbeder penned the ultimate confession in ‘L’amour dure trois ans (1997) with this self-sacrificing phrase meaning, ‘I belong to you, body and soul’.

Je ne respire que pour toi

Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni wrote in Lettres d’Elizabeth – Sophie de Vallière back in 1772 the ridiculously romantic confession ‘I breathe only for you’. It has since then become a somewhat more popularised way of declaring love.

Vivre sans t’aimer n’est pas proprement vivre

This heartwarming confession translates as, ‘to live without you is to not really live at all’, and is inspired by a text by the French writer Molière.