Old Swiss bikes are more of a problem.

For quite some time most or at least a huge chunk of the decent quality bikes sold in the US were French, so they are far from impossible to deal with. Tools and knowledge base is there, though in some cases a little digging is required.

Bottom brackets break somewhere between rarely and never. Only realistic way it died is if someone left it outside in the rain for years and it rusted out. So don't worry about it. If you do need to replace it there are still options.

It's possible that you are conflating crankset and bottom bracket.

Most Motobecanes used Japanese cranks that could be taken off with standard crank pullers, should you need to do so to repack the bottom bracket bearings. If it is a fancier model that has a Stronglight 93 or TA crank, you will need the special puller (23.35mm and 23.0mm, respectively), which is going to cost you like $40. Old bike shops that have been in business 40+ years will generally still have the pullers on their bench.