As a French citizen, you’re entitled to a free education at IUT’s (if you’re a strong B student) and BTS (if you’re a 2.8-3.2 student). Your program of studies is fixed, no electives, but you study a variety of subjects which you can read about when you choose the programs. Those are commuter only but being in a group that is together 18-24 hours a week helps create bonds. All you have to pay is room&board plus about $100 in books; if you live in a smaller town rent is rather cheap - that would cost you $5,000-7,000 a year all inclusive depending on where you live. Note that some IUT programs are highly competitive. After 2 years you transition to a “licence professionnelle” which is similar to the concentration/specialization year for a BS degree. Examples:
http://www.u-bordeaux.fr/formation/PRELPVIN0_209/licence-professionnelle-commercialisation-des-produits-des-filieres-vitivinicole-et-agrodistribution
http://www.iut-orsay.u-psud.fr/fr/formations/licences_professionnelles/info_lp_srsi.html
https://iut-angouleme.univ-poitiers.fr/
Those programs also offer a bit more support than typical programs, in that you know your professors and they know you by name, they help you get an internship, etc. They are far, far preferable to the public universities which are sink/swim, with no syllabi (or syllabi that mean nothing, ie., a test planned for a day is actually on another day, the class doesn’t cover the scheduled material), things break and aren’t replaced, etc. You’ll be expected to know all the formats that professors want. Being able to write cursive neatly is important. (preferably with erasable-blue ink and a fountain pen, which are sold in dozens of types depending on your agility with it, from 1st grader starter pen to calligraphy master… but it’s no longer mandatory); typing your work is “not done” or can be seen negatively.
If you’re an A student, you can access various colleges that are cheaper than in the US but not as decrepit and lousy as your typical French university (type “Ruines d’université” to see what I mean.)
The most famous, and most selective, is Sciences Po Reims (and its twin, the Dual Program with Columbia). All the Sciences Po colleges are highly selective and focus on one area of the world: the Mediterranean in Menton, China and Japan in le Havre, South America and Spain in Poitiers… You essentially study economics and political science. Expect to pay 12K for tuition.
For STEM students, there’s the international track at INSA (National Institute of Applied Science) in Lyon. It’s VERY hard to get into but it’s tuition-free for all students who are admitted.
For students interested in business, there’s ESSEC BBA program, which is more expensive (11K tuition + R/B). There’s also Skema, GEM, Euromed…
All of these, unlike the IUT/BTS programs and typical universities, have a campus and are not commuter.
If you’ve never lived in France, you may want to start in a Terminale of your choice. The classes are fixed (L if you want to study Art History&arts, or three or four foreign languages + philosophy + history; S if you want to review calculus, chemistry, physics, probability, programming; ES if you want to study history, geography, economics, sociology; ST2S if you want to spend most of your week in biology, pathology, anatomy, physiology, chemistry classes, and aren’t really into “core” subjects…) It’d help you make friends and understand what French teachers/professors expect - writing proofs in calculus, the “dissertation philosophique” model, etc. It’s very very different from the American writing formats.