Registered and used it with, apparently, the blessing of the French government for a couple of decades - they were aware of its existence, and worked with him in providing some content, as I understood the article.
It's ... nothing at all like cybersquatting. At all.
He had the blessing until he went for the trademark in Europe. In 2015 France.com didn't exist as trademark, then was registered by France.com Inc and at that point France declared prior use on the word France and related trademarks.
They let him use it until he tried to claim it for himself.
It's ... nothing at all like cybersquatting. At all.