The big stuff, sure, but the French state's small-arms capacity (while once impressive) has atrophied to the point of non-existence.

They rely on the Germans (and to a point, Czechs) to supply their military these days.

Are you saying only French companies build defense stuff in France or it's the only country in Europe that builds defense stuff in general?

Germany has quite a lot of defense companies that supply half the world I think.

They are saying that France is the only country that builds its own defence stuff only in country (unlike Germany that would buy American jets, for instance).

And it's true for most things that matter. The only exception I can think of is manufactured by cooperative companies that are part owned by France and have facilities in France but that specific thing might be made somewhere else (e.g. Airbus A400Ms for which the final assembly is in Seville, but Airbus is jointly owned by France, Germany, Spain), and small arms (HK, German made). Small arms don't really matter in the grand scheme of things due to the low barrier of entry both for acquiring off the shelf and setting up domestic manufacturing. Good luck doing that with fighter jets or cruise missiles.

airbus is owned by germany and france to each 10% and spain 4%. Things get interesting if you count all the owners from the states together they have ≈ 12%. But it is controlled by Germany france spain.