French corporate boardrooms are drowning in pessimism—the irony being that even the nation's largest corporations are struggling. The landscape reveals a stark divide: while establishment firms grapple with stagnation, a growing cohort of smaller enterprises are charting entirely different trajectories, thriving where the giants stumble. This market bifurcation mirrors broader economic cycles where structural headwinds hit legacy businesses harder, while agile smaller players exploit gaps the incumbents miss.