Thank you all. I was allowed to upload two photos of the hub to my gallery, but am still not allowed to post them here. Sorry.
28T chainring would be an improvement, but only a ratio of 1. Changing the freewheel will have a bigger impact - .94 for 34T, 0.89 for 36T (which is attractive for me) so any advice on criteria for deciding to change chainring vs freewheel also appreciated.
I assume this will have French threads, but cannot be certain. Assumption is based on all the components being French and the bike is in France