Caption formatting with babel French

The package babel with the language francais loads the file frenchb.ldf with the following defintion:

\def\figurename{{\scshape Figure}}%

The combination of \itshape\scshape is defined with the current font so you will get the odd result.

I can't understand why babel influences the format.

However you have the following possibilities to solve the issue:

1. Usage of the package caption

You can redefine the name via:

\captionsetup[figure]{name=Figure}

2. Usage of the package babel

\addto\captionsfrancais{%
   \def\figurename{Figure}%
}

---

Here a complete MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[francais]{babel}

\addto\captionsfrancais{%
   \def\figurename{Figure}%
}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[labelfont=it,]{caption}
%\captionsetup[figure]{name=Figure}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}\caption{xxxxx}\end{figure}


\end{document}

Just had the same problem and found this solution in the babel manual:

\usepackage[francais]{babel}
\frenchbsetup{SmallCapsFigTabCaptions=false}