[EnglishInFrance]

I believe this is entirely too dismissive of a very complex and important subject.

As a native English speaker living in France, I would strongly advise anyone considering living and working here that it is absolutely critical to speak, read, and write a competent level of French if one is to be successful.

Sure, if you're going to just live in the center of Paris and spend all your time in the Expat crowd, you can get by, but it's disingenuous to claim that someone wouldn't be at a significant disadvantage in a French company if they only speak English.

I'm aware of several companies that claim they operate in English, but what this really means is that formal meetings and (some) emails are written in English, and all other conversation is in French.