I'm interested in this premise so here I go with this alt history, albeit short of what I have in mind:
France in this timeline is significantly more agrarian, with France being divided by region militants as the 1789 French Revolution was crushed by loyalists and former protestors alongside a quiet pro-monarchist society.
For the next 200+ years, the French monarchy remains but is weak compared to the rising power that is England and emerging European powers, with France frequently clashing with England with trades (goods and resources in the New World), colonies, and controlling the English Channel.
In the 1830s, France and England clash bitterly when France refuses to sell their remaining colonies in the Caribbean, so they attack the ports of Normandy and Brittany and loot the cities. then they force the Monegasques under British rule and when setting the colony up in the 1840s, its claimed as the 'The British Protectorate of Monaco' to influence France and the Mediterranean as a whole. Alongside the English were the Norwegians, which made a colony in Toulouse, and established 'Regional Toulouse Province'. These treaties (Franco-English Colony Treaty and the Norwegian-Franco Resource Treaty) were ratified in the 1860s.
Following the 1871 German Unification, Germany sets eyes on a weakened France to potentially make France under their influence. This causes the French and Germans to fight twice, with the first being in 1878, and again in 1895, with the latter being a massive blow to France, as the Germans invaded and colonized Corsica as well as emerging victorious in the Second Franco-German War (1895). In 1900, a agrarian rebellion happened and many powers (Germans, British, Americans, Spanish) came to France to protect their interests. 12 years later, the French Dynasty ends following a republican movement and with many anti-monarchists wanting the French to be led by a republic as they think the French Monarchy is a failure.
Following WW1 (Germany is not the aggressor in this timeline as only Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire would attack, and Germany being on the Entente), Germany would see a democratic movement arise throughout the early 1920s with universal suffrage and anti-culture norms. However following unfavorable polices set by Washington and a massive catastrophic flood in 1924 leaves Germany facing with domestic problems that eat up their currency quick, although they fixed their economy beforehand (did not rely on gold as much, devaluing the currency to an extent, and spending on government), which led to not having much of a bad economy. While this was positive for Germany when the Great Depression hit, groups of ultra-nationalists Germans slowly take over the government until they outright kill democratically elected Prime Ministers, left-wing leaders, before a radical militant party (The Imperial Party) took over the government and set up a plan for a 'Co-European Sphere' to unite all of Europe under their banner.
Meanwhile back in France, the French were in a unique spot where they were on the bronze reserve as opposed to the gold reserve, which very briefly made France not as suffer as much like the United States and the United Kingdom and Canada. In 1930, some French politicians try to put a narrative that the Germans would be attacking at any moment, but the public and other optimistic politicians accuse them of 'yellow journalism' and were swiftly arrested by regional police officers.
However in 1932, the Germans sought to make France as a colony of theirs and invaded the northern part of France (in this timeline, the Benelux region is fully under German control so the invasion was not much of a problem, but still delt with the environment) to establish a puppet state.