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Since the mid-1980s, a number of accounting researchers have published research based on the work of French intellectuals like Michel Foucault. This article deals with the influence on accounting research exercised by the writings of French intellectuals. In particular, we seek to document this influence and to bring to light certain factors having contributed to its spread. Among these factors, one may count the opening up of the journal Accounting Organizations and Society to foucauldian research, the first Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting (IPA) Conference held at the University of Manchester in 1985, and the doctoral training acquired by several British accounting researchers in disciplines outside of accountancy like sociology or history.