Ms. Yade, who had said she would visit the Tunisian Association for Democratic Women, stayed in her hotel room after the authorities suggested that such a visit would be unwelcome.

During the month of demonstrations that led to Mr. Ben Ali’s fall on Friday, France simply called for “calm” and an end to violence. Prime Minister François Fillon criticized only a “disproportionate use of force” by Tunisian forces on Thursday.

Individual ministers had infuriated Tunisians and Tunisian exiles in France with their comments. As late as last Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire said Mr. Ben Ali had been judged unfairly and had done many good things for Tunisia.

The new foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, told French legislators last Tuesday that the French police could give better training to Tunisian counterparts to help restore calm because the French were skilled in “security situations of this type.”

She defended herself in an interview published on Sunday, saying that “the abiding principles of our international policy are noninterference, support for democracy and freedom and the application of the rule of law.” As the former colonial power, she said, France is “more obliged to a certain reserve  we don’t want to pour oil on a fire, but to help as far as possible a friendly people, but without interfering.”

With some 22,000 French citizens in Tunisia and perhaps 700,000 Tunisians living in France, Paris must be careful about what it says and does. France has regarded Tunisia as a bulwark against radical Islam. After all, France’s main terrorist threat is Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has exploited lawless territories in unstable or weak countries in North Africa.

By contrast, aided by the release of secret memos by WikiLeaks, the United States was seen by Tunisians to have made critical statements about corruption and greed in Tunisia. Washington also criticized the crackdown on demonstrators, and President Obama scored with protesters on Friday when he praised their “courage and dignity” and called for fair elections.