CDG/ Francais/ Life in Canada
Here in Canada, we have a number of airports in a specific region (National Capital) and an entire province (Quebec) that operates bilingually.
It causes difficulty at the best of times.
I recall a flight into CYUL (Montreal,Trudeau) with a bilingual francophone Captain that looked like a baby sucking a lemon ("Tabernac") when he heard a female AF pilot calling departure in French. When I quered him (French Nationals speaking French in Quebec) his reaction was: "They're French... I'm Quebecois! When I am flying into CDG I always speak English. You never know what those French are going to pull on you!"
...can't please everyone.
I have also heard Quebecois pilots flying into an airport manned by Francophones in the Montreal sector, (CYFB) but outside of a designated "bilingual" area, trying on initial contact to speak to the tower controller en Francais, with the controller replying, in English, "'dat 'day speak Hinglish 'ere only". They barely made it in!
Regardless, one of the largest tour operators in Canada, Air Transat, won't hire a pilot unless he has conversational level French, even if the guy/ girl has 10,000+ hours, but they will hire a Francophone with 3000 hours (glider licence an asset). I'm sure the French is used widely at their Toronto and Vancouver bases...
Pilots should be hired strictly on merit and flying ability. English is the language of aviation worldwide. Nothing replaces experience... except in Canada.
If I recall, the "Danger- Hold Short- Runway" signs at CDG are in English.