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The aim of this article is to analyze the late involvement of French astronomers in extragalactic research. This study reveals the uncontested leadership of the United States and the considerable lag of Europe and in particular, France. In North America this field became a recognized specialty, one pursued exclusively by some, like Edwin Hubble. There are many reasons for this lag, but some of the factors are correlated. The lack of powerful telescopes is not the main cause, for all the initial discoveries were carried out with equipment that many French and, more generally, European observatories had at their disposal. Financial causes were no doubt important: less private funding and government support as well as World War One. However they do not provide a sufficient explanation. More importantly, the organizational setup of American observatories was conducive to innovative research, in contrast to that of their European and French counterparts. Secondary tasks, which American astronomers were able to avoid (geophysics, meteorology, time-service), elsewhere prevented researchers from pursuing new developments. Finally, it seems that astronomers in France were not by training interested in the question of nebulae. Undoubtedly, this lack of interest was further enforced by a strongly centralized organization of the domain, which maintained the observatories in a routine continuity, as demonstrated in the reports written at the end of the period under study. The end of World War Two was accompanied throughout the world by a rapid growth in astronomical research, which brought about the development of extragalactic astronomy in France and, more widely, Europe.