Ergonomically, light aircraft throttles are a bit of a nightmare. Logically, you would think that closing the throttle means pushing the knob into the instrument panel and opening means pulling it out.
But the reverse is true, working on the principle that you want the aircraft to go faster, so you push the knob forward.
A quadrant system is probably better,
as 'closing the throttle' does not imply closing the throttle against the instrument panel
So maybe the French system is not as bad as it first seems.