It gets more interesting if spud3's comms had failed after receiving the clearance!
- well, if you are going to chuck in an R/T failure as well now, then as you will no doubt know there would be an urgent thumbing of Jepp or other docs to locate the 'French' procedure. Different ballgame.
As far as I can see, what I ASSUME spud did was to descend to 2700' initially, and having declared this 'leaving' to ATC - who did not issue any further instruction - I reckon that ticked all the boxes - safe and efficient. Why on earth enter a hold above its maximum altitude?