I can only suppose that if France left the EU that would be the end of it.
Pretty much, but in the back of their minds an awful lot of French have to be asking themselves “Who’s going to watch Germany?”. France is unique in another respect, it’s not really a northern European country, although Sweden and Scotland have drawn on French culture and alliances at various times, but it’s also not a southern European country in the way Spain Italy and Greece are. France could stand alone, but the question is whether it wants to. That would mean taking responsibility for itself.