It has been interesting to follow the recent transatlantic flap triggered by Ilan Abehassera’s interview in Betabeat.

Abehassera denigrated the French entrepreneurial scene in a piece that oozed of auto-pr; Liam Boogar of Rude Baguette called b.s. In reality, I suspect both individuals were viewing the same market but through the lenses of different eras.

The brouhaha fizzled before it became exciting, mostly because Boogar refused to play the tit-for-tat game. Which is admirable, though I would have liked to see some fisticuffs on this issue, because there’s clearly a departure underway now from the traditional stereotypes about tech entrepreneurship in France clung to by Abehassera that is a very recent but indisputable phenomenon.

I’ve been a tech VC in Paris for ten years now, and I submit that we’re now enthusiastically witnessing the Deepak Chopra moment for the French entrepreneurial scene. In other words, French entrepreneurship seems to be finally breaking out of the karmic cycle of risk-aversion, underinvestment, and narrow ambitions (Chopra is notorious for exhausting the metaphor of kundalini teachings in business world applications, but if you’re not convinced, read: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success). But you have to be on the ground here to detect this phenomenon, trust me.

The new generation of French entrepreneurs are breaking the mold. Every single finalist of the Founders Institute program — and every member of Le Camping I’ve met — pitches a well thought-through yet audacious venture with global ambitions reminiscent of what I heard in Silicon Valley in the 90s. First-time teams that have failed make strategic pivots and try again. French co-founders of bay area companies return to France for their second or third ventures (yes, it really happens). I even know of a few cases of Americans moving to Paris to start their tech companies. Granted, a lot of this evidence is anecdotal, but stories like these were unheard of five years ago, even eighteen months ago.

The government, on which the French often instinctively rely to take the lead in innovation, is stepping up in it’s role too. Between record Oseo subsidy grants, the newly-formed Fonds National d’Amorçage (the new 400m€ state-sponsored seed fund-of-funds), and it’s continued support (for the moment) of the tax-break-incentivized investment vehicles like FCPIs, FIPs, and ISF Holdings, early-stage capital is flooding the market. Does France’s legal framework around labor law leave room for improvement ? Of course. But this double-edged sword has benefits. For example, with programs like the Accre, unemployed workers can receive an advance of 50% of their 23-months of unemployment benefits if they apply it to starting a new business. And the government’s efforts to untangle the red tape of the past has rendered company creation formalities inexpensive and fast. As a matter of fact, just recently at Truffle we aided our partners in incorporating 7 brand new companies in the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

On the investment side, there’s definitely still a ways to go (mea culpa). But with the increasingly ubiquitous collection of professionally-run incubators (see How many startup accelerators is too many?), and seed funds like Isai and Kima, France is no longer totally devoid of U.S.-style early-stage investing.

Yet I submit that it is in the corporate sector where change is slowest. Whether it’s due to conservative values, complex decision-making processes, or insular networks, French enterprises do not have it in their DNA to do business with startups. There’s an old joke that a French software startup has better odds selling into American corporations than into its own backyard that still holds true. It’s no coincidence that the new generation of French startups gaining the most traction nowadays are by and large consumer internet plays.

To all you French entrepreneurial refugees in the States, I salute you for being adventuresome. I hold a (conveniently self-serving) respect for entrepreneurial immigrants in both countries. But also realize that it’s soon going to be safe to come home again.