Those discs are practically the same as the normal French THX discs, but there are differences. On the normal French set the shot of Luke's speeder in front of Ben's house is a low res still, on your set it's ok (the wipe is still missing though). Arnie.d can tell you more about it.
Try to get a (Pioneer) 2950, 925, 909 or 919. The 2950 is considered the best PAL player, but it is a twelve year old machine. The 925 is supposed to be nearly as good, but is two years younger. The 909 and 919 are the youngest two high-end Pioneer models for the PAL market, from '98 and '99 respectively (they also play DVD). They're technically identical, except the 919 can play DTS sound from DVD's, and the 909 can't. They both read DTS from LD. If your main goal is to transfer some stuff I'd get a 2950, but when you get one nowadays it usually needs some professional cleaning at least. If you want a player for regular use, I'd get a young player: a 909 or 919. I have both a 909 and a 2950, if you want to see what the quality difference is like I can send you a clip. It isn't much.

EDIT: You should be able to get each of these players for about 200 euros.