Yes, the Panasonic Blu-ray HDD recorder is available in France - the
DMR-BW500EFK. There are also several models from a range of manufacturers already available in Japan and beyond - one of our Forum posters from Australia, Damien Buckley, has the Panasonic BW500 Blu-ray recorder for that market, if I remember rightly.
One problem with UK move to Blu-ray recorders has been the patchy, varied approach to HD broadcasts - Sky, Virgin, Freesat etc, none of which uses the same reception system, plus copyright hurdles/subscription systems.
However, with Panasonic supporting Freesat in its TVs, it's not a huge leap to see it producing a matching Blu-ray HDD/Freesat recorder in 2009. Possibly LG will follow, though it's just announced TVs with Freeview PVRs built in, so maybe not.
Apologies for being so vague, but we're still too early in the year to get firm UK plans re pricing and availability. Give it six weeks and we should know a lot more!