I always believed the french system was better than here. They hide, but they also have 'rules', ie for example than can't time you on bends etc, and they can be as good as they can be bad (especially the gendarmerie)
Rule #1, be as polite as you can manage, do not deny anything, but try to mitigate (ie I was passing, I got confused with miles/km, or even sorry I felt like pushing a little here as it was lovely and straight etc)
Ultimately, you WERE speeding, and you shouldn't, really. In this country it's borderline as if they are going to put a sign 1/4 mile before the cameras really, that doesn't stop the boy racers, unless they are REALLY stupid.
Once, a long time ago, I was going 190+km/h+ in my brand new Golf at 3am on a straight bit of the motorway near Lille, with absolutely nobody else (and I hadn'nt been drinking). I had a pair of gendarme bikers hook on me, and they pulled me over....
I opened my window, and they came to me with big grins and "So, it it working as good as it looks?" had a small chat, a laugh and a "tss tss, careful tho" and they let me off just like that...