Irish chip and pin cards work in many many French outlets. I think it depends on who supplies the retailer's services. Last time I was there (at the weekend) I had a problem with the Maestro card, but I'm finding that the Visa is pretty much okay at this stage.
Regarding the French having to catch up now - I'd just like to point out that the French had chip and pin more than ten years ago. As in...we're only catching up with them now. I'd also add that they had a nifty feature whereby you could use them in standard call boxes as well instead of buying a phone card.
What's signficantly more annoying, in my experience, is the vast number of retailers in Germany who don't accept any credit card at all.