Correct Answers to a Strange Question

Some guy posted this question a couple of weeks ago to the following thread on www.lonely planet.com: 

Hi!! I'd like to get an idea about the percentage of French spoken in Egypt - Cairo, Luxor and Aswan. (...) I live in the U.S. I just speak a little French and generally brush up on languages before I go to a country. So I was wondering if I should brush up on French or on Egyptian Arabic (I was hoping to be able to focus on French more since Egyptian Arabic is a bit difficult when one is used to Moroccan Arabic).

Weird thing to ask. The guy clearly isn't a follower of this blog. Given the kind of answers he got Francophone propagandists have their work cut out for them:

I went on a Nile cruise organised by a French company. All the other people were French. The two Egyptian guides spoke French. But I can't say I noticed much French being spoken by the locals to potential French customers. My wife and I were called on to interpret.

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Egypt is not Francophone. There are French language schools (subsidised by the French government) but you will hear no French spoken. (...) [T]he foreign language of choice is English (no surprise there).

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You truly will find no occasion when you need to use French. (...) American English is fine.
The French government likes to promote its language and has a sort of Francophone area where it pretends French is spoken. Egypt is in that (...) But so are unlikely places like Ukraine. It just means they get a subsidy for French language schools.

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French used to be the language spoken by the Egyptian elite. If you meet with Egyptian diplomats, intellectuals, artists... who are over 50-60, they are very likely to speak very good French.
Nowadays, upper class families send their sons to study English, for obvious career reasons. A good number still sends their daughters to study French, the idea being that they won't have a serious job anyway so it's good to have them learn an "artistic" language.

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If you're in Egypt as a tourist, it's unlikely that you'll meet any of these francophones, except if you have a drink in some cafés in downtown. Everyday Egyptians do not speak French.

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Work on your Egyptian Arabic, even if it's just taxicab or courtesy Arabic. French will do nothing for you here.