On the south side of the Esplanade stands the Automobile Building, constructed between 1947 and 1948, at a cost of $800,000. It replaced the Centennial Exposition's Electrical and Communications Building and old Automobile Building, which together burned down on February 10, 1942.

Within each niche of the three large porticoes of the Centennial Building and Automotive Buildings stands a tall, pressed-concrete statue representing one of the six nations which have claimed, at one time or another, sovereignty over Texas. Each is 20 feet high and takes the form of a female figure. They were designed and built by a team of sculptors led by Lawrence Tenney Stevens and Raoul Josset and including Jose Martin. All the statues on the north side of the Esplanade, in front of the Centennial Building, were designed by Stevens while those on the south side, in front of the Automobile Building, were designed by Josset.

This statue represents France. She wears a fleur-de-lis emblem and in her hand holds a bunch of grapes - symbolic of the wine for which the French are celebrated. France's claim to Texas was short-lived. In 1685, Robert Cavalier, Sieur De La Salle, established a settlement on the coast of what is now Southeast Texas. It was called Fort St. Louis. When the Spanish heard of it they went to investigate but by 1689, when they found it, Fort St. Louis was a ruins, its inhabitants slaughtered by Indians.