France were one of Eurovision's most successful nations winning five times in the early days, but unfortunately, their luck hasn't been great of late.  They saw disappointing results with ordinary songs in 1999 and 2000.  2001 saw them enter a wonderful song, and the performer sang in English - a one and only for France at Eurovision - they secured 4th place.  This form was kept up for a year at least with one of my faves 'Il Faut Du Temps' in 2002 by Sandrine Francois.  They saw the UK award them 10 points and managed a fantastic 5th place.  Things then went downhill... their 2003 entry wasn't bad, but not great, 2004 was a boring male ballad amid lots of other boring male ballads and 2005 saw France's entrant Ortal point at everyone in Europe and tell them how selfish they all are singing "chacun pense a soi" - not the best way to pick up votes!  In fairness, the song was good, but it just went somewhat wrong on the night.  2006 saw another poor result and after an extremely high profile selection process in 2007, they still could only muster 22nd place.  Nonetheless, they're qualified to the Final as members of the Big 4.