[shaggy eel]

,,, surely national pride would determine such a grand scale project would be staged on French soil rather than in their colonies. I guess this is quite a wise site to use on the basis of the outcome in this case.

[rogue yam]

Generally speaking, the choice of launch site is strongly influenced by the intended inclination of the orbital plane of the satellite with respect to the Earth's equatorial plane. That is, if one wants to launch a spacecraft into a low or zero inclination orbit, then one seeks a launch site at or near the equator. This saves fuel.

[altair]

Nope. France is too far north. Math trumps national pride.

[desertcry]

would be staged on french soil rather than in thier colonies Knowing the french, they certainly would have liked to launch their rockets from Paris. But unfortunately for them, the french rockets could not launch a frog into orbit, without Mother Earths angular momentum's help, which is most potent at the Equator. Colonies do have some uses.