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Over the last twenty years a number of studies on language development in infants living in bilingual environments have highlighted their extraordinary abilities to discriminate between different features of languages— abilities equal to and sometimes better than those of infants developing in monolingual environments. Over the same period, and following the seminal article by DeCasper and Fifer (1980), studies in prenatal perception have established that language acquisition already starts in utero. In this article we give a historical outline of the initial research into prenatal and neonatal language perception in France, conducted at the renowned Baudelocque maternity hospital (Cochin Hospital) in Paris between 1980 and 1990. Some of the respective contributions of prenatal and neonatal research to the understanding of language learning are briefly described.