This September environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo will announce the areas and offer tenders for around 3GW.
France needs to ramp up its annual installations substantially if it is to meet its European commitment that by 2020 at least 23% of final energy consumption will come from renewable sources.
To achieve this target, wind is expected to provide around 25GW of installed capacity, of which 6GW will eventually be offshore.
Although France is the fourth largest wind market last year, developers continue to run up against planning and administrational difficulties in dealing with local government.
The industry is also concerned about other tabled amendments to Grenelle 2, which could further hamper the development of onshore wind farms.