I lived in Paris for a year, and I'm now working for a big tech company in the US. I can't speak from the VC side of the table, but France has incredibly technically strong graduates (people with technical degrees from the top universities there are all very good) and young people have a very global outlook. Further, there are more and more programs that provide start up funding/locations/tax breaks.

What is missing is an ecosystem to sustain and nurture these companies. The capital in Europe is incredibly conservative and very old fashioned.