you can purchase a french threaded stronglight a9 headset from xxcycle.com on the cheap. it's a nice fairly modern needle bearing headset -- i use them on both of my french rides. even though they are in france, shipping to the US is pretty cheap.

the bottom brackets aren't too awful, just a little strange. a good solution is to buy a set of phil wood french threaded cups and track down a shimano un-72 bottom bracket. with this particular model you can remove both of the factory cups and use the phil french threaded rings in their place. this works really well. still not ultra cheap, but a very solid option.

alternatively, if you can track down a set of older sugino french threaded cups, you can throw in a s75 109mm bottom bracket spindle (they can be purchased without any cups).