sounds like you may not have set up the self adjuster mechanism before replacing the drums they will take ages to take out the free play if left to themselves. let the handbrake adjustment off fully then remove the drums and keep adjusting the self adjusters two or three clicks at a time and replacing the drum each time until the shoes just rub everso slightly ,make sure both drums are on and pump the brake pedal a couple of times to centralise the shoes and recheck then finally readjust handbrake cable (I'm assuming you have assembled the mechanisms correctly

So long as the self adjusters are free they should adjust themselves up very quickly once shoes are bedded in.

It is easy though to forget to clip the retaining spring over the adjuster and getting the adjuster spring itself the right way round, if the adjuster isn't under tension then they will not work proper like.

If you lift the adjuster itself with a screwdriver away from it's spring it will automatically bring the shoes back to their resting position..ie fully unadjusted, if you then pull the shoes open by leverage you should see and here the aduster moving up in a series of clicks, hopefully by doing this you'll see whats not quite right.

Even taking pics and drawing diagrams it's still a bit of a job to work out just how the adjuster gets assembled and how it works cos all the moving bits are hidden behind and everything looks different once you've got the springs off and the shoes are hanging off.

Bet you enjoyed doing that job by the way, having 3 pairs of hands helps, presumably French chaps are so equipped..;)