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I haven't seen any troops carrying submachineguns, though some of the police are. The French soldiers all seem to have their standard bullpup FAMAS in 5.56 NATO. I don't have much of an opinion on the rifle, but French soldiers and Foreign Legionnaires I've talked to seem to like it. Still, maybe more fuel for the discussion over the stopping power of 5.56 at close ranges.
Given that they were operating in one of the two or three most tourist-heavy parts of the most tourist-heavy city in the world, I expect that the soldiers have fairly restrictive ROEs. So, five shots, including a gut shot, to take down a machete-wielding attacker without risking any nearby civilians is not too unreasonable, though there's certainly room for improvement. I've seen dashboard video of a police officer emptying his magazine into a gun-wielding suspect in a parked car, only for the suspect to then climb out of the passenger side window and run away; that was pretty embarassing.
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