I'm currently living in Paris right now. Before that I lived in London, Germany and the US. So this is kind of a view from the outside.
As every city there are good and bad things. Administration is horrible and the worst experience from anywhere that I have lived. Getting an apartment will be hell. It just will. Paper is still the norm in this country. Your mailbox will never be empty. This part sucks.
The work atmosphere in this country is horrible in comparison to other countries like the UK and US. Remember, this is the country that (legally) has a 35 hour work week. In startups this looks different although they have the reputation of being lazy in comparison to American startups. While I haven't seen it, this is likely the case for some. There's no smoke without fire. And just judging by the way this country works...don't be surprised if they seem lazy.
English. Right, this is probably one of the biggest problems non-French will have. Across the board French people's English have the worst English ever, out of every country in Central Europe. That said Paris is in some way an exception. Parisians' English is still horrible for the kind of city it is trying to become but not as bad as you'll hear it in other cities.
Food - Don't understand why people are saying it's bad. It's really good! Especially compared to a city like London, where it's expensive and quality isn't amazing. There is less of a junk food culture in Paris than in other cities though.
There’s more good and bad things to go into but I’ll leave the bad stuff at this for now.
There are good things going on in Paris. The city is amazing to live in. It’s much cheaper than London. Transport costs are a lot less. Leisure activities are cheaper. A lot of stuff will be cheaper, including apartments. The city is beautful to live in too.
There is a good startup ecosystem in Paris. There are a couple good exits coming out of France. But it all seems like a big circle jerk, which (IMO) a guide like this shows. This may also come from the extreme forms of patriotism the French show(sometimes) and/or from the fact that they don’t speak English and are repulsed by anything English.
A lot of startups start here but quickly try to get the hell out and move to the US or even London. There have been a couple good exits though but not as many as London nor any as big as the ones in Berlin.
I don’t know what the fundraising process goes like in Paris so I’m not going to comment on that. Obviously it will be harder than in the US as there are less VCs here. Judging by the amounts being raised and the amount of “big” VCs in London it’s also weaker than across the channel.