I can't get the App Store in English because I'm based in France

Question

If I change the country of residence to Ireland, then it tells me I cannot use my account to buy stuff.
If I keep the French version, it shows me the french preferred apps first.

Answer 1

tells me I cannot use my account to buy stuff.
Your credit or debit card account must be associated with the same country in which you reside to make purchases from either the Mac App or iTunes Stores.
"Although you can browse the iTunes Store in any country without being signed in, you can only purchase content from the iTunes Store for your own country. This is enforced via the billing address associated with your credit card or other payment method that you use with the iTunes Store, rather than your actual geographic location. You can use the iTunes Store in all countries of which you’re a resident, but you’ll either need a separate iTunes Store account for each one, or you’ll need to continually be switching the billing information on your single account. Generally, it’s simpler just to set up an alternative account for these situations, although it’s worth nothing that features like iTunes in the CLoud and iTunes Match are designed to work best when using a single iTunes Store account, as you can only switch accounts with these services every 90 days."
From here >  The Complete Guide to Using the iTunes Store | iLounge Article