The French are indeed even-handed in their treatment of foreigners speaking French -- they treat them all with suspicion. From my years in Europe, I have this observation to make: The Italians love anyone who tries, however badly, to speak Italian. The Germans will insist on correcting anyone who errs in speaking German. The French are insulted at French spoken badly.
If you don't speak French very well, you are asking for grief if you try it in France. In this context, I have to tell one of my favorite stories, which has to have the dialogue in French: In the early 60's, we were on a trip to France and one morning, driving down the Champs Elysees from the Place de l'Etoile to the Place de la Concorde, I heard the shriek of a whistle and saw a gendarme coming up. I stopped and rolled down the window. "Monsieur," he informed me, "Vous avez passe le feu." I looked around and saw no traffic light nearby -- the last one I saw was several blocks back. As I spoke French well with very little accent, I asked, "Monsieur l'agent, quel feu?" He pointed at the intersection I had just gone through: "Ce feu la-bas." I looked again, and succeeded in making out a traffic light behind the trees, which made it virtually invisible, so I replied, "Monsieur, je vous demande pardon, mais je n'ai pas vu le feu a cause des arbres." He drew himself up to full height, sniffed indignantly, and replied, "Monsieur, vous avez du le voir!" with great emphasis on "du", so that was that. He then motioned me on my way, but I'm convinced that if I had spoken English, or, worse yet, spoken French badly, it would have cost me dearly, even if I escaped being thrown into the bottommost dungeon of the local bastille.