Is this still the case for single roads in France or did it get changed back to 90kmh? Because when we travelled through France a couple of weeks ago nearly every speed limit sign was 90 and not 80. This was going from the Swiss/French border at Vallorbe up to Pontaliar, over to Salin-les-Bains and on to Dole to pick up the motorway there. Only saw one sign that said 80, all the others were 90.
The default speed limit on French single-lane RN and RD is 80 unless a 90 km/h sign is posted. The departmental council may increase the speed limit to 90 if approved by the prefect and the road safety commission.
I know this because one of our clients recently received a 68 € fine for driving 91 km/h on a national road, thinking the speed limit was 90 since he had seen 90 km/h signs on other national roads. So, if you don’t see any 90 km/h signs, make sure to slow down to 80.
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Ah, that explains it. When the 80 limit first came in we didn’t see any 90 signs until we got close to Dole, but on this latest trip 90 was everywhere. Guess the various councils decided to up it again. 
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I thought the national limit was 90 for divided (non-autoroute) carriageways and 80 for all others, unless posted 90.
Not quite, the 90 limit applies to multi-lane roads without a central barrier. So on sections where an extra lane is added in one direction or the other it changes from 80 to 90 within that section. If it does have a barrier, i.e. is what the Brits call a dual carriageway or the Americans a divided highway then it’s 110.
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So pretty much like the UK where a dual carriageway has motorway speed limits rather than A road speed limits.
Most countries have similar rules, including Switzerland where the default limit for non-motorway dual carriageways is 100. But unlike the UK, both of those, and others, have a different higher limit for some specifically-defined motorways.
Are they what are called semi-auroroutes?