Hey, I actually DO french beginners, and I would say that it's a fairly interesting subject, if you want to learn the language. And as for the person who just said that you would need to be really dedicated, I couldn't disagree more. There is probably a big gap in workload in beginners and continuers, but I would not worry about French beginner's workload. I plan to drop it, so I do next to no work, but still manage to get by third in my class. It's easy, just remember the rules.
I'm dropping it because I like my other subjects more, not because it's a bad subject, or because of scaling (Art scales worse than French).
If you want something a bit different that you haven't tried before, it's fun to have a go at. You can always drop.