I don't know about French politics but is it generally like in America, that if the Executive branch is won by a party the opposition party wins a majority of the legislative?

Usually correct, until last time in 2017, Macron had the presidential win and his party "En Marche" compromised of many splinters of left wing, socialist and centrists got the majority at the senate, which is why he tanked us this hard.

I know many folks here in America want the power in the hands of the state like established in the Constitution. Is France much the same?

No, we don't trust the government nor the states, usually it's preferred if every city work within their own budget with a share of the taxes going for hospitals, firefighters, etc... Lately not even the French government have that much reach on us since they are delegating more and more power to the European Union and those guys don't give a rat ass about anyone else but their profit, the reason why the EU parliament was build in Belgium is simply because it's the only funding member of the European Union that haven't criminalized lobbying (but gambling is still illegal) you can check the map, the lobbying companies are taking more space than the actual European Union parliament, it's unreal.

That doesn't make any sense? yeah, that's the purpose, same for firearm laws, governments will switch between the localized one and the European one depending on which one cuck the citizens the most (except CZ, PL, HUN which is why they are getting buttfucked by taxes and all, hell, lately the EU is threatening to withdrew financial aids from Hungary if they don't elect the "correct leader")