No, but also no experience with mandatory contents insurance at the two Paris apartments I have previously rented. Maybe it's the law, but neither the agency I dealt with for one rental nor the private owner for the other made it an issue. Anyhow, what's to insure? Any property I bring to an apartment for a temporary stay is covered by my household policy back home. The rest of the apartment contents are the owner's responsibility. If French civil law takes a different view, I will be interested to read about it here.

Never heard of such a thing. And if you buy general travel insurance, which most folks advise doing, you might be insured anyway.

I own a rental property in France, and have no indications from my insurance company that I need to require this of tenants. Might be something new that I don't know about, but I kind of doubt it - when French laws change, they're quick to let you know.

As stated above, what's to insure? Presumably, you're required to put down a deposit that isn't necessarily refundable if you mess stuff up. THAT's the "insurance policy" IME.

Here is the wording, taken from the "Furnished Apartment Rental Agreement" which appears to be a standardised form as a quick search shows variations of this form being used by other rental agencies

VII-INSURANCE:
The tenant must be insured by an insurance company known to be solvent against the risks of theft, fire and water damage, deterioration and loss, both for renter’s risks and for the
leased property, as well as for third party claims, and shall present proof thereof upon the landlord’s request. Accordingly, the landlord shall not be liable for remedies that its
insurance company may seek against the tenant in the event of loss.
In no case shall the host agent or the intermediary agent be held liable if the tenant is not insured. The tenant may request the landlord or its representative to put it in contact with a
French insurance company from which it can take out a policy for the duration of the stay.

My rental company VIP also requires renter insurance INSTEAD of a security deposit. They provide it at a cost of about 20 dollars. Good deal as it doesn't tie up abuut 500 meuros of your maney for a couple weeks.

Well, obviously you are insuring against damage you might do to the property, such as setting it on fire, which might then damage another apartment, etc. This has existed in France for some time, as far as I know, but most people tend to ignore it. When we were handling rentals,we talked to our insurance company, who first said - no problem, if someone is injured in the house, for example, they are covered by your liability insurance as if they were a guest. And if things are stolen, it's either your insurance or theirs who will cover it.

Only several years later did he say 'but of course if they burn the house down, there might well be an issue with a rental property' - as in our fire insurance wouldn't necessarily cover it. It wasn't very clear, and we chose not to worry, but obviously some people do.

Don't know anything about the insurance company they recommend.

We had this required at one of the apt rentals in Paris in 2010. I checked with my homeowners and they said I was covered staying elsewhere. I provided that info to the landlord in paris and he was fine with it. Have never had an issue in an apt so don't know want might have happened if we needed to make a claim.

This sounds like it is for long-term rentals, not vacation rentals of a week or 2. I can't imagine you could even get insurance for such a short time span.

Actually, if you go onto the site of that insurace company, you can enter dates, amount of rental, and location, and they quote a price

And in fact, even if you are only there a week, and burn the place down, or flood it, the owner is not going to want to deal with an American/Canadian/AUstralian company.

It's just that most of us don't worry about requiring it, and obviously some do.