Philosophers of science have shown over the past several years a growing interest in chemistry. Chemistry has always held an important place in French philosophy of science. By confronting our respective experiences as philosopher and chemist, we bring out the specificity of the French tradition. The insight provided thereby will allow us to examine afresh some philosophical problems raised by contemporary science: changing conceptions of matter, laboratory practice as opposed to mathematical representation as well as the impact of computer modeling and atomic microscopy on our knowledge of the behavior of matter.