hello Whirly!
sorry, just discovered your thread this morning! great going!
I flew to France some years ago with a friend in her PA28-150. We vowed afterwards.... NEVER AGAIN! We experienced much of the same problems you did.
In Germany we also have reporting points at ALL class D airspace, so that was nothing new for us. But communication with the Frenchies... forget it! Before leaving on our first trip, a Thursday, we received 20!! pages of NOTAM, and most of it even the guy at AIS couldn't figure out, so we flew to Luxemburg and Belgium instead on our way over to England and the North Weald airshow. We returned via France on the weekend and it went well, but we were VERY glad when we reached German airspace again! I don't like ATC not answering... it makes you worry whether you're doing things right or not and in flying there's enough to worry about!
I see no reason to have to learn French... we don't expect anyone to learn German when flying here! English is the language for aviation... period!
OK... sorry for my rant... but I'm with you...
I'm glad it went well and yes, we all make mistakes and/or think we are well prepared then things get messed up... and you learn by it.
Westy