I live in France and used to avoid McDs like the plague. Recently I had no choice but to eat in one. I was amazed. The things you describe are my recollections of my experiences. But now, I ordered off a screen, got a number, went and sat down. The meal was brought to me by a pleasant young man, the food was edible, and I got an expresso afterwards for €1. The place was clean and bright, they had lots of healthy options, and I could have bought a beer or some wine as well.

Their marketing is also intelligent. "Meet me for coffee at MacDoh" for instance. McDonalds is hard to pronounce for French speakers so they shortened it to MacDoh.

I realized that it was changes like these that make McDs France their most profitable. Something to emulate in the land of great food.