A quick note: Apple has you covered for two years in France, due to european regulations: the first year is handled by the manufacturer, the second one is handled by the reseller. This is important as in terms of resellers an Apple Retail Store is not considered the same as the Apple Online Store, and even mode important if you're not buying it through Apple.
That said, every time I went to an Apple Retail Store I've had the thing handled nonetheless, sometimes even when out of the 2 year warranty.
The EU warranty regulations are always about the relationship between the customer and the retailer, never with the manufacturer.
Manufacturers are free to offer an additional warranty, and many of them do, but it's got nothing to do with EU regulations, and can be better or worse than the retailer warranty (e.g. in terms of who needs to pay for shipping, covered problems, proving who's to blame).
If your device breaks in the first months, you often have the option of either going to the retailer or the manufacturer.
It doesn't even need to be an Apple Store. When my SSD died after the 1 year apple warranty I called Apple and was given an option of several Apple certified shops around me.
They told me there that it usually takes a few days for apple to authorize the repair after the 1 year vendor warranty, but I was able to pick up my laptop again on the next day in the morning.
My Macbook died last month after 15 months, outside of the 1 year warranty. I had bought it from Apple's website.
The local certified shop wanted £99 to diagnose the problem. Apple weren't particularly helpful when I asked for help to get the fee waived (their staff in the US don't know about the UK Sale of Goods act, understandable perhaps), so I had to take a 40 minute train journey to my nearest Apple store.
The Apple store diagnosed the problem and immediately offered to repair it for free 'under UK consumer law'. I was pretty happy with the experience, but would have preferred if the local certified shop had been able to diagnose and repair the laptop for free instead.
That said, every time I went to an Apple Retail Store I've had the thing handled nonetheless, sometimes even when out of the 2 year warranty.