Yes and if you are stateless but need to travel, you can get the passport without the citizenship, it is easier to get a passport than a carte d’identité, or used to be.
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The procedure for applying for a French (German, Italian, Dutch, Austrian…) citizenship does not have any point where laughter could be included. I suggest you stop listening to stories in pubs.
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" An English guy I used to meet in France, had lived there for over 15 years, took part in a lot of community activities never claimed a benefit in his life and thought he would apply for French citizenship. They laughed at him."
Worked? Paid taxes? Had a clean casier judiciaire?
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I have no idea who “they” might be… and why on earth would anyone laugh at him. Applying for citizenship is a serious business… so I suspect the “English guy” has not provided you with the full details.
Perhaps his Interview did not go as he had hoped… who knows… but, whatever, it is a serious undertaking… applying for French Nationality… and if he felt he was not dealt with fairly (ie laughed at)… he can pursue the matter… but, as I said… we do not have the facts… 
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It is very unlikely that your French speaking British was a refugee. As a resident of France he would have been able to officially apply to become a French National but he would have been ineligible to apply through the routes available to refugees. France and Britain are no different.
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An African guy was granted a French passport last year for saving a child’s life, he climbed up the outside of a building to rescue the child. The passport was given to him on the tv, it was a big thing. Travel documents can be given but never a passport or citizenship.
Passport = travel document. The clue is in the name 
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The guy who applied for citizenship was not a refugee he was a retired pilot.
A travel document is not a passport.
You are talking absolute rubbish. I think you are talking worrying rubbish. Your example has completely trashed your theory anyway.
Was your English friend a refugee?
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“A travel document is not a passport.”
But a passport is a travel document, in France and elsewhere.
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No he was not a refugee. A refugee will not be given citizenship either in France or Germany. That’s why they come to the UK
So he said. 
I suggest you look at the number of British passport holders who have applied for a French nationality in the past couple of years. It’s a lot. Your claim is nothing more than a racist slur and posted in the wrong place.
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A travel document can be issued by an embassy for someone to travel home usually. A passport is only given to a citizen or a subject.
Talk to your mayor about getting French citizenship
I think France only has Citizens or immigrants…
oh, and visitors…
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No need to talk to the Maire… get the dossier together and apply to the appropriate office…
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But you’ve told us about a refugee who was given a French passport. I lived in Germany for 36 years and met several doctors who had come to Germany as refugees but gone on to have German nationality.
You are mixing and matching stories to make an unwelcome point. This really is not the right place for your comments.
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Pull the plug please Stella.
About 90 thousand refugees were given French citizenship in 2016, and another just under 90 thousand in 2017.
Figure for 2018 as yet unreleased but I imagine it’ll be about the same.
These are actual recognised refugees, not other types of immigrant, by the way.