All the guildlines for a layman who wants to do Phd . have in the upper link..

yes this is up to you. you can send a proposal to more than one university at once.

After that choose from them..

Bewildered is giving a better suggestion, first decide that what do you want to do after that decide your study stream..

France is not a bad place to choose for the study after your high school..
Take full knowledge about the colleges and universities of the France..

This is the PDF of that Cultural Historical Activity : systemdynamics.org/conferences/1999/PAPERS/PARA161.PDF