Schill said France could engage a division of 20,000 troops within 30 days to operate as part of an allied coalition. Paris, he added, would be able to command a force of around 60,000 soldiers made up of French and other allied troops. The French army comprises some 121,000 soldiers, with 24,000 reservists.
Bit of a different situation, methinks. AFAIK to get ot Niger, they'd have to fly across Algerian airspace - which Algeria has closed for military aircraft. To get to Ukraine, they'd have to move across Germany and Poland - both of which are in NATO and will likely be of assistance.
Moving a military through all of Europe towards Russia... where have we seen that before?
They may as well call it doing a Hobbit, because every time they tried that they went There And Back Again. After Napoleon tried it Russian troops ended up in Paris, after Hitler tried it Soviet troops ended up in Berlin. Do they somehow hope third time's the charm? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is usually not a sign of sanity.
If they wanted to they could have bullied Algeria into letting them through.