Obviously I dont actually believe all French food is awful, but Im coming from personal experience from ten years of riding the area with locals and visiting places they consider high end food.
My friends are not picky at all, in fact they will eat anything, but it got so bad we were only going in courtesy.
The smell..jesus, they flat refuse to cook anything properly and thats why half the country has toxoplasmosis for life.
Theres rarely a menu, you just get what theyve 'cooked', one meal was offal wrapped in lamb intestines, when I say 'cooked'...it was warm.
Have you ever been to a tannery where the boil pig skins, the smell is skunk level of baulk..well thats what it smelled like.
I guess what I mean is French food outside of tourist areas can be of a level beyond what most non French people can tolerate.