As "Kai-Petri" points out, Gamelin was isolated in the chateau of Vincennes, and "incommunicato" with not only the front, but with his own second in command (Georges?). He wouldn't speak to the man when they met in person, he would speak to his aide, his aide would speak to the other general's aide, and that would be the "link" of communication between the two men at the top of French defense.
BTW, Gamelin had NO telephone nor radio at the chateau. His reasoning was that telephones can be tapped, and radio codes broken; "why risk telling the enemy where the command center is, or what they are doing". All communication was by hand delivered messages, carried by both motorcycle and horse couriers. Not a good plan in a war which is going to develope into one of mobility and communiction.
As to the tanks, they outnumbered the German tanks, and on the whole were better tanks as well, especially the SOMUA 35 medium which was considered the finest medium tank in the world pre-war. The turret arrangement was rather cumbersome, but it was designed with sloped armor and while many were yet to be equipped with radios, that had been the original plan in 1936 when the first were delivered. And the French first line fighter was a DeWotnie (sp?), and was a fine fighter, I forget the designation at the moment (500/520?). Simply put, just not many of the new fighters had been supplied before war actually broke out, but the comported themselves with skill and had a numerical kill ratio superiortity to the Luftwaffe aircraft they came up against.
Here is the stuff I was vaguely remembering about the D. 520:
When the German offensive in the west began on 10 May 1940, GC I/3 was the only unit using the D.520. During the next month four more units converted to the D.520 (including G.C. III/6 on the Italian front). In combat the D.520 proved itself to be an equal to the Bf 109E – the only allied aircraft engaged in France that could really make that claim. In tests against a captured Bf 109E-3 the D.520 was found to be slightly slower but more maneuverable.
The five D.520 units scored 108 confirmed victories and 39 probable victories. The confirmed victories included 23 Bf 109s and 9 Bf 110s. In the same period 106 D.520s were lost, although only 26 of those were lost in air-to-air combat. If the D.520 had been available in larger numbers in May 1940 it may well have denied the Luftwaffe control of the air over the western front.
From:
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles...tine_d520.html
The specs for the 520 are rather lame for a later period, but comparable to the Emil (109E) which was the main stay fighter of the Luftwaffe of the moment.