TOKYO, May 14 (Reuters) - Japanese investors were big buyers of French bonds in March, data released by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday showed.

Japanese investors purchased a net 3.184 trillion yen ($29.17 billion) of French bonds during March, up from a net 988.3 billion yen in February.

They sold a net 445.5 billion yen of U.S. bonds and also offloaded a net 185 billion yen of German debt in February, according to the data.

($1 = 109.15 yen) (Reporting by the Tokyo markets team; Editing by Richard Borsuk)