"Zone exigue" means a small confined area. This new article to the decree is a result of a tragic accident which took place in January 07 near Arles, when a PPL with an Alouette 2 missed his take-off from a restaurant helipad and killed 3 or 4 people on the ground. The pilot had less than 100 hours and media coverage of this accident lead to a reflexion about permits to land on non-airfields/privates places. So now, if you want to land near your friends' house ie. you have to be a PPL with more than 300 hours or be a PPL with a special confined area training (5 hours) issued by an approved DGAC examiner. If you have a CPL, no changes. But I don't know what's about a foreign PPL, but being a french pilot an knowing how our administration is helping us, I would certainly take this 5 hours course if you don't have the 300 hours on your PPL, just in case of...
Hope it helps, cheers,