Any city in China is, in general, friendly, so take your pick.  Some people here do speak English, they do know how to say "Hello" and "bye-bye".  French will not be of much help except at the French Consulate.  Or if you happen to be near me.  Anyway, come with an open mind, select one or more cities to visit, and do enjoy the sights, the couisine and Chinese warmth

I'd agree with HappyExPat, with the caveat that if you stick with the larger cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc.) you will have no problem at all, however, while still extrememly friendly, if you travel to some of the smaller places you may find a lack of English communication skills present.

The other night, my wife (Chinese) and I were in a local resturant in Changsha and a couple from Italy walked in. They were having a hard time ordering food, as they were tourists and didn't know Chinese. My wife was able to translate their order from English to Chinese to the waiter, and all was fine after that.

With that in mind, bring a small English to Chinese guide book with you, or learn to pronounce some basic dishes in Chinese. Every resturant won't have "all of the above," but enough dishes are common that you should do well. Things like chicken, shredded pork and peppers, toufu, and just about any veggie you can imagine.

Have fun on your travels, and make sure to bring a good camera!

In Wuhan there are plenty of English speaking expats and French speaking African students.

any city have English speakers, all hotels have English Staff, there are many tourist agencies... so feel free... but mostly in the big cities such as guangzhou, wuhan, nanjing, shanghai, beijing and tianjin, its where you can find a great number or foreigners and English Speakers, i also speak French, but its hard to find foreigners speaking French, but most of them are students from Francophone countries... Most foreigners are friendly, am sure of it! Chinese people also, but don't expect much

French is not that common at all in China, sorry to say.  I would say that more people here might speak Korean or even Japanese or Russian than French but then again even those percentages would be small.

As for terms of a friendly city,  I would probably recommend any of the southern cities over the northern cities.  Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, etc., the people can be quite laid back and amicable.  Shanghai is like New York or London and most of the attributes of those two cities will also hold for Shanghai.

If  I could personally do it over again, I would choose Guangzhou or Nanning, knowing what I know now, coupled with the weather in those two places, it's just really enjoyable living.

Visit the capital of china you can even find french companies to work for..there are all types of opportunities for different nationalities in Beijing. They even have that Baguette place to get your bread...I think it's called Paris Baguette...

If your only worry is the language, then visit Hong Kong. The entire “special administrative region”, is a friendly place for the foreigner tourist and since it was a British colony, you will have no problem if you can only speak English.
However, if you come to China, you should not miss the chance to visit Beijing and maybe Shanghai. In my opinion, these cities are not friendly as Hong Kong but are a mandatory destination for any tourist interested in the past and future of this country.