Well, I don't know many ex-pats, but the few I've come across seem to hang around with other ex-pats, rather than integrate into French society, so I don't know if they can really fully grasp French life.
I don't know if my life is complex (although it doesn't feel that way from the inside!), because it's all I've really ever known, and I've only spent a very short time in the UK as an adult (although I lived there as a child), so can't really compare, but the article makes very little sense to me and certainly doesn't describe the France I know!
The woman from the anti-smoking lobby is a lobbyist and therefore has a bee in her bonnet and a point to make, but if you look at the facts she states, smoking among French women has risen by 6% in 60 years and is still only 26%. In the UK it's 24%, so not a huge difference, really!
In my entire circle of friends, I only have one friend who smokes and one who used to but stopped a few years ago! In fact, in my experience, smoking is actually more prevalent in those socioeconomic groups where women are not quite so slim and groomed. Most of the women I know are very health-conscious in pretty much all respects, including not smoking!