The Paris prosecutor's office said that the six are being questioned by anti-terrorist investigators, and are believed to have been part of a radical Islamic terrorist cell.
Prosecutor's office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre says the suspects were detained yesterday and remained in custody today. They can be held up to four days under France's anti-terrorism laws.
France has been on higher alert for potential attacks since French troops entered Mali earlier this year, to push out al-Qaida-linked extremists who had seized much of the West African country and have threatened France and Europe.