Okay, anyone can dig up an article on the web to support their viewpoint. So we'll have to find a source we both can agree on. How about europa.eu?
(apparently they didn't know how to put together a proper table back than, see the dates on top of the collumns)
Here you can see that the Dutch absolute (by wich I meant and still mean: as opposed to per capita) net contribution overtook the French one in 1998, wich took a dive and became a third of the Dutch one in 1999. I'm not sure what happened back then, but the UK went from being a small contributor in 1997 to net-outcontributing the French more than twice in 1998.

Here you can see that over the period 2000-2002, the Dutch was first twice that of France while in 2001 and 2002 they were roughly the same. I'm wondering how the UK came to be a net receiver in 2001

There's a lot of variations from year-to-year, and the general trend is that France started net-contributing more and more because of CAP reforms. In 2008 it's still nothing to be proud of though, and none of the traditional excuses fly: it's not an eastbloc country, it wasn't fascist dictatorship until recently and there aren't that many Irish people in France either.

I know the picture looks rosier for France if we focus only on the gross contribution to EU coffers, but as I've said, I consider the CAP a pork program and a huge slice of it's clientele lives in France. Since these leeches farmers are more likely to spend their bounty income in their own country, the French economy has an economic incentive to keep the CAP in addition to the fact that few politicians are willing to piss off their farmers. France de facto contributes less to other EU projects (most of wich serve some useful purpose) because a lot of French money that goes to Brussels is spent on French farmers first.

Regarding the British conspiracy, I rarely watch foreign telly (occasionally BBC, or Belgian or German news) and never read foreign newspapers. The truth is that France's financial contribution to the EU, compared to what they get back, is tiny for a first world economy of 60 million people. Anyone who can't see that is ignorant of the situation or French.