[TippeX]

yup, could be a language issue, maybe the english crack is not compatable with french, you could try looking around for a french crack perhaps one exists
sometimes the language changes can be in the datafiles, sometimes it can however be compiled into the exe, that could be the issue, sadly there is no real way to check, most of the cracks out there are for the english version, as well its the 'dominant' language, so more people have it etc...