It's just that voices of reason have been coming out of France (e.g., nuclear power) for the last three decades, but they don't make it through the filter and gatekeepers of the LSM.
France is indeed a land of contradictions as a book I’m reading now (Fragile Glory) illustrates pretty well.
As someone who has recently been there and keeps up with French newspapers and TV I can say that in answer to some posters, that the French almost unanimously disagree with our Iraq policy, and also almost unanimously buy into most of the green stuff.
The first is to answer the poster who wondered if the “recent unpleasantness” between France the the US was merely a US media creation. No it wasn’t. When you tell someone in France that you supported the invasion of Iraq they look at you like you’ve got three heads. They don’t attack you but they certainly don’t understand it.
As far as the enviro-consciousness of the French - some of it is motivated I’m sure by the importance of Paris in the French mindset - this is a city that has to come to terms with the fact of life that it is a dense urban landscape that has to rely on mass transportation more than many places in the US.
Some of it, as has been pointed out, fits in nicely with their status as early and enthusiastic adoption of nuclear energy.
Some of it probably has to do with their lack of oil resources in their “empire”.
But the notion of “emissions des gaz à effet de serre” and “l’échauffement global” is everywhere, and I do mean everywhere in the French media.
I’m sure this dude Allegre will encounter more than his share of opposition.