In comparison for instance with Italy or the United States, there is no doubt that the reception of Frankfurt-inspired critical theory has been delayed in France. For some years now, it can be considered as one of the places of its most vivid developments, both from the point of view of historiographical studies and of attempts to renew the tradition. The aim of this article is to spell out the specificities of the current situation by analyzing, on the one hand, what has hindered the reception of Critical Theory in the past, and on the other hand, what has contributed to unblock it. I will then go back to the prehistory of this reception before distinguishing its four main stages: the years 1974–1986 correspond to the first moment associated with the first translations of Horkheimer and Adorno; the decade that followed saw the emergence of the Habermasian figure; from 1997 onwards, the translation of Axel Honneth’s texts made possible new uses of Critical Theory; for the last ten years, Adorno has attracted more and more attention. For the sake of simplification, the focus will be on the main authors of the first three generations of the Frankfort school, while other authors of these generations such as Marcuse and Benjamin, for instance, will be mentioned only in passing. The study of their reception would require another article. I will not deal with the fourth generation of critical theory that is many respects is even more closely associated with the French discussion than the previous generation. This is a sign, among others, of the increasing transnational character of Critical Theory. The conclusion of this paper will mention some paradoxes of the national reception of a tradition having a transnational character.