While France might use the old apprentice journeyman master system still and their woodworking training is better than I have seen elsewhere, their woodturning has lagged behind until recently when people like Jean-Francois Escoulen and Yann Marot (to name but 2 out of a possible 20) have now revived the turning skills and there is now money in the system for training. However that only really counts for artistic woodturning, the old production turning is now mainly given over to copy machines and CNC. There are a few old diehards but even they now have to resort to making spinning tops in the markets to cover slack times. Sadly however there are very few turning clubs around France mainly because so many hate giving away their secrets, just take a look at the AFTAB site http://www.aftab-asso.fr/fr/forum/index and see how few posts there are by comparison to The UK USA or Australia.
As far as removing bark goes well here are a couple of Australian burls that I turned:
But I note none of the French turners nor I have got a Bentley must be barking up the wrong gum tree. 
PG
