We recently opened an account with HSBC and we had been dreading it based on what we had heard about the famous French red tape. It turned out to be very easy. Did the application online. We went into HSBC's offices in Harcourt St Dublin to have our ID documents verified by a staff member. We posted that and the job was done. We have banking online with the new account.
Not sure how the charges compare - but we won't be using it much and we needed it opened in a hurry and it was the easiest to do with the online application etc. Also it has a branch near us in France - Bordeaux city. I called in for a bank draft ("cheque du banque") and the man who looks after the account brought me in for a chat.
We asked for 2 debit/bank machine cards which cost us 50 euro altogether so watch that - will cancel one for next year and we'll see later if we even need one.