France is probably the least compliant JAA member state when it comes to mutual recognition of licences and ratings. This is doubtless due to the total subservience of the DGAC to the Frech pilot's union and French industry.
There are numerous examples of the DGAC refusing to recognise licences and ratings issued by other JAA member states on the most spurious of grounds and, according to a TRI at a major UK-based TRTO, a French pilot's LPC was recently rejected because the TRE held a Maltese licence and Malta was not a member of the EU!!! There are also examples of refusal to recognise licences gained as a result of training undertaken in non-JAA states, such as the USA.
As el dorado has obviously discovered, every possible obstacle will be placed in the way of a non-French JAA licence holder seeking to work in France or French overseas territories and it is probably not worth considering unless you are a fluent French speaker. Graduation from a French university has also been quoted as a pre-requisite to employment in a French airline in the past but I think the EU stepped in and declared that contrary to EU law.
Things might change when EASA takes over responsibility for Licensing but that won't be until 2006 at the earliest and France also has a record of ignoring those elements of EU law that it doesn't like - and getting away with it.