Not sure about the requirements of owning one, but try selling a french domain to average Americans.
On a more serious note, I'm not familiar with the requirements so perhaps someone can fill us in on those. In this case there really isn't a large English speaking population so I'd hope that these words would be in french. I don't think there would be a large English market for these domains unless you're looking at popular words such as hosting.
Well, if you're a domain broker, you won't get nearly as much money for a .fr domain as a more popular extension, such as .com. If you're in France, they might have some strong value to your business, however.
France is one of those countries like Germany and the UK where the ccTLD is really popular. You don't hear much about it, but I reckon it has the potential to become as profitable. A good French word with a .fr extension is probably a good investment. Other language words?... Pwe, I spit on zhem.
You'll notice that there are still lots of good french names available in the .com as well. It's as if the French haven't caught on to the net yet.
No offense intended. Maybe it's just a question of market size, but boy are there some great names still available.