I did it a year ago and back then it seemed like they were against picking people up. I asked one of the French speakers to chat up the driver and ask him for me and he agreed. Not sure how it is now but if I did it again I wouldn't plan on it working out but would be pleasantly surprised if it did.

Hopefully things have changed. Research the train/subway as a backup. Good luck.

Try to make friends with a speaker and see if they can help out with the driver. The French can be real pricks if you don't speak the language.