I vaguely recall being told (so this is not first hand) a French PPL just needs to be able to do VOR tracking, and (more hearsay) that some/most French clubs will require that the pilot does not go above an overcast layer as a condition of rental. How they enforce that, god knows.
My suspicion, based purely on human nature, is that French pilots must do an awful lot of DIY letdowns. It's generally easier out there though because they tend to have a higher cloudbase than the UK; of the order of 4000ft. With the big exception of the Bay of Biscay where low cloud (OVC007) is common but there it's easy to fly offshore for a bit where you "find a hole in the cloud"
Or N France where the weather is a bit like the UK.........
However it's possible that the whole pattern of flying in France differs from the UK, and that most club-level flying there is very short local hops. I am always amazed when out there at how little traffic there is; of the order of 1/10 of the UK, based on both radio traffic and sightings.