I'll be honest and say that I can live with this nuance of French ATC. One thing that I do dislike and I think should be changed is the LAST call from French ATC (and incidentally some American and more disappointingly UK ATC).
Frequently (no pun intended) we are given a level change and a frequency change in the same transmission. Brest and Bordeaux are particularly keen on this procedure. I can't help wondering if this may lie behind some of the "loss of R/T contact" problems the French have. I would also suspect that it may cause level busts, but I have no data to prove this.
One aspect of this that may be interesting for ATCOs to know is that on anumber of occassions I have seen the frequency and the level read back perfectly correctly, but when it comes to dialing them in to the equipment, both flight crew have forgotten which digits go where.
I say let them have their re-reading of the route clearance, but remove level change and QSY in the same TX!
G W-H