To hear the French, no American can actually speak their language
so why bother.
Diplomacy has been described as the "fine art of saying 'nice doggie' while you're looking for a stick."
Maybe it's time to send a straight talker to the French, not some double-talking diplo-weasel. Besides, the real humor of the whole thing would be the level of insult to the French for sending a non-career diplomat. That sort of thing is normally reserved for posts like the Bahamas.