"Oh and don't forget they speak with a very strong accent making it a little more difficult to learn the language, imo. Although I must admit I quite like their accent."

Yes they do speak differently there but I don't think its a show stopper. My wife is from the Herault Department and they do tend to add an extra syllable at the end of words and some words are pronounced differently,e.g., pain is pronounced peng but you get used to it. My biggest problem is some of the people I encountered there speak too rapidly for my puny brain to process. All things considered I found them easier to understand than the Quebecois. (Did you know if you want to order a hot dog in Quebec you ask for a chien chaud?).

One time, my in-laws introduced us to a visiting couple from a small village in Normandy. I had absolutely no clue what this man's wife was saying.

You find strong regional language variations in other countries in Europe. I speak German but if someone uses their regional dialect, forget it. I also find it extremely difficult to understand people from Austria or Switzerland, but this is just my ignorance.