Pros
Colleagues (Master degree trainies, PhD candidates and Post-doc researchers) come from everywhere in the world, it is very exciting and interesting to work in a such rich work environment.
Cons
"The Peter Principle" defines perfectly senior scientist in French research organisations. They are "has-been" people, unable to get themselves up-dated with recent science and technology discoveries, but at the same time they are very arrogant, ready to kill professionally younger scientists to steal their discoveries. Career progress for young researchers (PhD candidates and Post-doc researchers) is very difficult. In addition, most of senior scientists in French research organisations are at the left side of the political system (socialists, communists, trotskists, marxists, anti-capitalists, anti-liberalism), and they block every commitment in favor the transfer of scientific discoveries into the market.