They are pretty popular for driven game hunts in France, particularly the new "Short Track" model. 300WM seems to be a popular cartridge on the hunts I've been on. Though as some of the others hinted at it depends on the hunting group. In general, in the West and South of France the hunting culture is strong with regular farmers and rural people and the hunts are very casual affairs based on the local comune and no one really cares what you shoot with, many old timers are there with their old SxS shotguns rolling out pumpkin balls. So no problem with a BAR or an 'evil black rifle' Remington pump. However, as you get more north and more east the hunting culture becomes more "German" and becomes a thing of urban, high-euro crowd, on "pay to play" basis. Here you see less BARs and the tastes lean towards express rifles rather than autos, pumps and lever guns.

Its funny during my driven boar and deer hunts I've been on in France I've seen more BARs, Remington pump rifles (35 whelan), and lever action rifles (444), than I've ever seen in a lifetime of hunting in the US. In particular the pumprifles... I alway joke with my French hunting buddies that soon they'll need to start wearing Stetsons and Justin Ropers to go along with all those lever guns they shoot.