Nah, they didn't produce the forks any different for the US market that I'm aware of (where the heck is Walter? He knows more about motos than I do). French forks are threaded differently and have a slightly larger fork race than the standard British sizing. It's also possible the bike dates later than you think-- sometime in the early to mid eighties, the French manufacturers started using British threading, and in some cases JIS.

Yes, those maillard pedals suck mightily for overhauling, if they're the models I'm thinking of. If you wanna stick with old school quill pedals, you might try changing over to a SR-150 or something like that; they can be found relatively cheap on ebay. Much easier to get at the bearings for an overhaul.

If you're removing the BB, don't take off the fixed cup unless you need to. Just peek inside the shell and see if it looks good.