french hyphenation patterns

[Ben Pfaff <pfaffben@msu.edu>]

[CCs appreciated, I'm not subscribed to debian-user.]

I'm currently trying to figure out how to typeset French properly with
LaTeX under Debian.  Most everything seems to work properly if I use
something like the following for my LaTeX file:

    \documentclass{article}

    \usepackage{t1enc}
    \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
    \usepackage[french]{babel}

    \begin{document}

    Insensiblement nous tombons dans des situations périlleuses, dont nous
    pouvions aisément nous garantir, mais dont nous ne pouvons plus nous
    tirer sans des efforts héroïques qui nous effaryent, et nous tombons
    enfin dans l'abîme en disant à Dieu : << Pourquoi m'as-tu fait si
    faible ? >> Mais malgré nous il répond à nos consciences : << Je t'ai
    fait trop faible pour sortir du gouffre, parce que je t'ai fait assez
    for pour n'y pas tomber. >>

    \end{document}

However, hyphenation doesn't come out correctly.  I get the following
output from TeX:

    blp:~/frn420(0)$ latex \\nonstopmode\\input explication.tex
    This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.3.1)
    LaTeX2e <1999/12/01> patch level 1
    Loading CZ hyphenation patterns: Pavel Sevecek, v3, 1995
    Loading SK hyphenation patterns: Jana Chlebikova, 1992
    (explication.tex (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/article.cls
    Document Class: article 1999/09/10 v1.4a Standard LaTeX document class
    (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
    (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/t1enc.sty)
    (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/inputenc.sty
    (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/latin1.def))
    (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/babel.sty
    (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/babel.def
    (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/switch.def))
    (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/frenchb.ldf

    Package babel Warning: No hyphenation patterns were loaded for
    (babel)                the language `French'
    (babel)                I will use the patterns loaded for \language=0 instead.

    )) (explication.aux) (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/cyrillic/ot2wncyr.fd) [1]
    (explication.aux) )
    Output written on explication.dvi (1 page, 768 bytes).
    Transcript written on explication.log.

The "No hyphenation patterns were loaded for the language `French'" is
the part that worries me.  I've consulted the documentation on this
issue, but it seems to say that if `french' is turned on in
/etc/texmf/language.dat (which it certainly seems to be) then French
hyphenation patterns should get loaded.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Ben.

-- 
"Whoever you are -- SGI, SCO, HP, or even Microsoft -- most of the
 smart people on the planet work somewhere else."
--Eric S. Raymond