If there are Cohen, Waits and Dylan for the English speaking there are Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré for the french. Brel and Brassens are rather known, but not that many people know Léo Ferré, though he was a giant. Beside his own work he made interpretations, whole albums of poets as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, apollinaire, Louis Aragon and Lautréamont.
There is not that much to be found on youtube.
These are nice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np9o1ChUT3g
(Les Anarchistes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3CDwvg5 ... ed&search=
(Petite)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t0-gE9iKP8
(Chanson d'automne)
(Léo Ferré and Richard Martin)