That is totally right. I'm french. Laws protect renters, but not that much, and landlords don't hesitate to threaten with false pretense. And if you mention anything illegal they're doing, you simply won't have the apartment. They ask documents they have no right to see, but if you don't provide them they won't even look at your application. Obviously people of colour do have a harder time finding an apartment, but even for engineers it's hard to find one in a city.