In conjunction with the
launch of the Sony Reader in French Fnac stores a secret source
(named Alex Turcic 
) has just revealed to me that the Reader is also
now present on the
French Sony site.
In addition, the French manual can be found
here, and a PDF fact sheet is
here.
It does not seem possible to order the Reader online; however, perhaps it will become available after the October delivery to the Fnac stores (or in the announced Parisian Sony Style shop). I suppose we will have to wait and see...