Your thoughts on french weather ?

Something that made me laugh: a mate of mine invited one of his british coworker to spend some days with his family in France in mid-November. He never went there before.
The colleague's anser was something like "no thanks, I'd love to, but I believe I couldn't stand France's climate, well too hot for me". My mate lives in Reims, north-eastern France, where temperatures in autumn and winter drop way below those of London (for instance).

So, is that a common belief among british people who never went there, that France is some kind of subtropical chunk of land, where the grass is never green, the rain is inexistant and gets a yearly average of 30°C from North to South, East to West ?
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@Robert D: Well, you own a house in France, so technically, you know what you're talking about: slightly warmer yes, warm like the center of hell, no.
Although I don't know where you live in the UK, I tend to find Normandy slightly cooler than the southern coast of England myself.