The purpose of this paper is to present the history of the research in mathematics education, its characteristic and some theories as its results in France. The french research in mathematics education really began with the inauguration of IREM in the institutional aspect, referring to Bachelard in the epistemological aspect and to Piaget in the psychological aspect. It aimed at appreciating the mathematics education as a independent science and focused on the theoretical research through its own object(didactic system) and its own method(didactic engineering). Therefore, it can be characterized by the dense and elaborate theoretical arguments. Consequently, it is known that four major theories in french mathematics education were developed: the theory of didactic situations by trousseau, the theory of didactic transposition by Chevallard, the theory of conceptual fields by Vergnaud, the theory of tool-object dialectic by Douady. Among them, this paper is focused on the situation of institutionalization and the structurization of milieu in the theory of Brousseau and the motive of didactic transposition and the didactic time in the theory of Chevallard. In that the french research in mathematics education has been founded on its own theoretical models, it may contribute to us who envy the basic theories of mathematics education.