Last trip to France I cleared in via Calais and out via Cherbourg. I'd agree the facilities are slightly better at Cherbourg - and if you're going to for instance Honfleur is a better choice than Deauville.
However both offer the oppertunity of quickly clearing in/out to meet the legal requirements without costing much or taking too long.
L2K and Deauville are both expensive in comparison and take longer. The 'international' airfields further into France all seem to suffer from the security and admin hassles which scheduled flights bring, so unless they are your destination I find them to offer little as an alternative.