When the French actually do get tough, watch out.
Exactly. Any time the French decide to drop the silliness and do something they do it in a very final way. For instance, what they did to Green Peace when one of the GP ships was protesting France's nuclear weapons tests. Simple solution - send frogmen to sink the ship.
The French also have some anti-terror rules that are almost draconian and would never be acceptable in most of the Western world (e.g. comparing French and British anti-terror rules is a laughable exercise).