It is significant to note that in the tourism bibliography available in France, there is today (2022) no book or academic work devoted to the topic of roots tourism. Only regional research (in Franche-Comté), some journal articles: Tereos (2010), Diasporas (2009) or a few allusions in general works, Cousin, S., Reau, B. (2009) or Violier, P., Duhamel P., Gay J.-C , Mondou V. (2021) evoke the subject, but in a very allusive way. The question is therefore to understand why France, compared to the Italian experience, accumulates such a delay in the development of roots tourism, when it has both the history, the territory, and a large community of expatriates or descendants of colonists around the world.We will first review the scientific literature available in French language on the subject. By high-lighting the gap between this academic literature that has already well analysed the principles of roots tourism, and the delay in experiences of implementation on the French territory, we will try to understand this paradox. We will examine the structural factors that hinder this de-velopment, then we will analyse the available resources and the population concerned by roots tourism. Finally, a regional case study on the development of roots tourism in Normandy will also be presented.