Probably not, just trying to keep the facts straight. Offsite backups should always be encrypted on the client side, so it doesn't really matter where the provider is located or if it's trustworthy. (except for things like reliability / retrievability).

Can't disagree with that.

That is quite an outlandish statement, encryption is absolutely not outlawed in France.

The government is however, currently brewing an awful local version of the Patriot Act just as the US seems to be dismantling it.

Please read the history of encryption, France outlawed it for many years and then in the start only allowed weak encryption.