Hey Mike,

Well, I'm almost in Milwaukee.

About the French legislation it self:
Terrorism, it is defined in penal code Book 4 Title 2: on terrorism. All dispositions on terrorism are set in the article 421-1 to 421-6.
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affich...Texte=20100730
(Naturally all in French)
But this applies for the terrorist acts conducted on the French soil.
As you pointed out, there are some differences with the US legal system for operations abroad as the French law does not apply.

Also, in the case of hostages, this falls under the Book 2, Title 2, Chap 4, Section 1: on sequestration. For hostage taking this falls under the article 224-4.
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affich...Texte=20101001
But once again, this is applicable only in France.

The incident in Somalia with the piracy is a precedent as the pirates were brought in France to be judged under the French law. This was probably possible because this happened in international waters on in the national water of a country without state (Somalia).