"And where are the French rock artists?"
I can think of only a couple myself, none of them superstars:
There's Ange, the French Pink Floyd:
Little Bob Story had their 15 minutes of fame during the late 70ies punk/pub rock craze, but they are still going:
Around the same time Shakin' Street caught some press attention in the UK. Blondie meets The Dicatators (Ross the Boss played with them for a while):
I find Magma's idiosynchratic trance prog pretty amazing, their new album Zess is brilliant (they have even invented their own language which to the unaccustomed ear sounds a bit German), their music gives new meaning to the term "hypnotic":
And then there is always Gong (Johnny Rotten was a fan, Steve Hillage and Alan Holdsworth played with them), which are half-Brit, half-French, proggies too, the French do like prog:
I almost forgot French punk-metal-garcons Trust, whose drummer Nicko McBrain later joined up with another heavy metal outfit ...
In more recent times, ambience music stars Air are probably the most popular French music export, lovely bass playing here:
Of course there is always the helmet wearers of Daft Punk:
