Hello, as long as you pick your own locks (or if the owner allows you to pick the lock), it's legal.
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCo ... e=20040310
L'effraction consiste dans le forcement, la dégradation ou la destruction de tout dispositif de fermeture ou de toute espèce de clôture. Est assimilé à l'effraction l'usage de fausses clefs, de clefs indûment obtenues ou de tout instrument pouvant être frauduleusement employé pour actionner un dispositif de fermeture sans le forcer ni le dégrader.
This article defines the legal meaning of the word "effraction" (breaking-in, einbruch).
"Effraction" is usually a circumstance that makes
another crime more serious.
Of course this law is only valid when you are not allowed to break this "dispositif de fermeture" (locking device), so basically when it's not your lock.
It would be absurd to not let you break your own padlock if you lost the key.
Lockpick tools would be here:
Est assimilé à l'effraction l'usage de fausses clefs, .... ou de tout instrument pouvant être frauduleusement employé pour actionner un dispositif de fermeture sans le forcer ni le dégrader.
translation = Is assimilated to "effraction" the
use of fake keys, ... or any tools that could be used fraudulently to operate a locking device without forcing it or alterating it.
Beside the fact that we are speaking about the "use" of a tool, you could also argue that a lock or a padlock that is not installed to protect something is not really closing anything. (If you meet annoying people, you consider here that a "dispositif de fermeture" is not the lock but the installed lock.)
So lockpicking is legal and the possession of the lockpicking tools is legal tool.
However (!), in function of the circumstances, if the police controls you in France with some lock pick tools, they may dislike the fact that you have lockpicking tools (if they understand what the tools are). If they suspect something illegal, they allowed to investigate and for example control if you carry a suspicious amount of valuables but this will be function of your answers, your behavior, circunstances + other possibilities. If they confiscate the tools, i think (!) that they should theoretically give your a receipt for that and give you a legal basis to explain why they do it. (They may go faster in reality).
They may confiscate everything that looks like a knife (this include of course "padlock knives" but also some shapes of picks, especially if they are sturdy), because you are not allowed to carry knives in public.
If you carry lockpicking tools, i strongly suggest to put them in a place that is hard to reach and that makes the tools hard to use. It may save you some troubles.
I know at least one french website that sells some picks [not everything] to individuals and it is, i think, a proof that it is really legal, but this is my very first message, so if you look for it, you will find it.