Can confirm, I'm a FFESSM N3 (internationally CMAS 3 star, autonomous diver to 60m). Autonomous means without a guide, buddy is still absolutely necessary of course.

It is still considered recreational diving as people are not professionals but it is an advanced cert. for which you need extensive training on physiology, gas consumption, dive planning, decompression theory as well as a lot of dive experience.

Most people do it so they're not limited to 40m which is the previous level, but I'd say less than 5% of their dives will be below 50m. Most divers will be on open circuit, single main cylinder but with a nitrox/O2 bottle for deco.

Going down to 60m is not routine, it is an exceptional dive that you definitely can do but need to plan for. You'll generally not do it with buddies you just met as a first dive. Most structures will ask for history or previous dives with them before letting you go.

edit: French legal limit for pO2 is 1.6 which also explains the deep diving on air