Chain hotels have a big presence in the cities. Accor, the world's largest hotel company has a range of brands to suit any budget such as Formule 1, Etap Hotels , Ibis and Mercure and Novotel. Intercontinental has the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brand. Best Western is also well represented in France. Many Australians are members of some sort of loyalty program with one of the big players so there may be some savings to be had this way. Choice Hotels has the Comfort, Quality, Clarion and Sleep Inn brands.
If all you want is a room and a shower on your way through to somewhere then Formule 1, Etap Hotels and Premiere Classe, Mister Bed are excellent value. There are hundreds of these no frills hotels throughout France (mainly on the outskirts of cities and towns) and they often go for under 30 Euro per night.

In the countryside the Campanile Brand offers comfortable motor inn style accommodation (outside of main cities) with decent restaurants throughout regional areas. The Balladins chain offers good budget accommodation throughout France as well.

Logis de France , whilst not not a chain is a network of hundreds of independent small small hotels throughout France (generally in the countryside). Prices are generally better than some of the more well known brands and the experience is authentically French. Most have nice restaurants and offer car parking.

Many of the chain hotels can also be booked through various hotel search engines. These do a lot of f the leg work for you, searching by price and location. These are ideal for cities and hotels with more than 20 rooms.

Expedia.com.au is the Australian version of Microsoft's Expedia.com. Its advantages are that it offers hotels in most countries, displays prices in Aussie dollars and you can book up to 8 rooms at a time which some of the other sites cant match. They will also bring up a selection of tours relating to the city you are booking which can save time.
Priceline.co.uk is an excellent UK hotel search engine that offers a huge range of properties throughout France and Europe. Prices display in Euros and it is possible to book multiple rooms.
Booking.com is a global hotel search engine offering a wide range of accommodation in France. Properties are located on Google Maps to help with directions.
Otel.com represents a good range of hotels especially in the larger European cities. It will sort by price and display in Aussie $ which can be useful.
Venere.com has excellent European coverage and some great deals. It is easy to use, but only displays prices in Euros.
France.com. The name says it all. Not bad for the larger cities although tending towards the pricier properties.
Laterooms.com is a hotel search engine representing around 500,000 properties globally. While they specialise in late bookings, it can still be used bookings several months out.
Wotif.com is a great option for late notice bookings (eg within 28 days). Prices are in Aussie $ and there are often great bargains to be had. Site is easy to use and has a pretty good coverage of Europe (not to mention Australia).