French astronomers have been involved in research programs in Antarctica since 1979 when a successful campaign on helioseismology was done by a collaboration between the Nice University and the Bartol foundation. Several campaigns followed on this subject. In 1984 sub-mm observations of the diffuse galactic emission were done by a collaboration between the LPSP (Verrières le Buisson) and the Bartol foundation. These showed the high quality of the site for such observations not only because of the low water vapour content, which gives good transparency, but also because of the very low sky noise.