The dairy sector has been benefiting from an economical and political stability for twenty years. How will the forthcoming important changes affect the French dairy systems in their diversity ? A prospective analysis gives the outline of some major axes of evolution. A brief reminder of the specificities of the four main dairying zones of France, which are linked to the other European zones, is followed by an analysis of the acting motive powers of change and of their consequences on the systems presented, for each of the dairying zones. An efficient management of these systems will still require productive animals, but endowed with new aptitudes. The analysis of the foreseeable changes affecting the production systems in these different zones shows the possibility of a new map of the French dairy production, with a shift towards the forage crop regions of western France and towards the grassland regions of north-western France; this raises the question of the national distribution of subsidies to control these transfers, which might be important if governed by the sole market forces.