I like the idea behind Matrix, but hosting it is really a pain. I've given up on it until it's a simple `docker-compose up -d` away from running a full instance.
To get back on topic, France has really got its FOSS movement moving. There are a TON of Mastodon and Peertube instances located there. It's admirable.
Being similarly frustrated with how complicated it is to set up, I've created an Ansible playbook to automate it all (and run all services in containers): https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy
By default, it sets up Synapse and a bunch of other services around it that are necessary to really make it useful (Postgres instead of the default under-preforming SQLite; mxisd as the identity server; STUN/TURN server for WebRTC calls; riot-web; various bridges; etc)