Could destroyer packs overwhelm French cruisers?

Were French designers worried that packs of powerful destroyers could outmatch their cruisers?

Probably, but those destroyer packs were themselves part of the Jeune École-influenced force structure shaping French cruiser doctrine.

Concentrated destroyers could threaten a cruiser, and France understood the danger because it was itself developing powerful destroyer formations. Both the threat and the French answer grew from the same Jeune École inheritance. The destroyer-pack problem was therefore part of the doctrine shaping cruiser employment rather than an unforeseen contradiction. French cruiser design must be read alongside the destroyer forces expected to operate around it.