Yeh that's what I mean, they certainly had their fair share of "interesting" characters and there never really was a broken chain. Paco 2006, Moreau 2007, Valjavec up until he got done. The Efimkins. So whilst you may have given them the benefit of the doubt with the good ole "clean French cycling", they don't really survive a more thorough inspection.
Gadret/Dupont were pretty transparent circa 2010/2011, for 2013 they signed two climbers out of Italy, and 2014 they sign two of Bernaudeau's boys. Not to mention if you judge teams on positive tests they are dodgier than all others, I don't think Georges/Hounard would be forgotten so easily if they rode for any of the high profile teams. It seems to me like Lavenu never really embraced they idea of trying to be competitive with clean riders.
For a while now I've been more of the opinion that the whole "clean French cycling" is some sort of joke that has been played on us.