Hello
So I've been reading a lot from this compilation of threads about the incoming european expansion :
The Pan-European Suggestion Thread Directoryand it gaves me quite a lot of ideas. One of them was that French national ideas, while already quite satisfying, were awkwardly split between ideas related to the feudal era (e.g the general estates, which was one of the first thing the revolution abolished) and ideas related to the post-revolutionary era (e.g liberté egalité fraternité, literally the motto of the republic, or the philosophes, who were among the most influential opposants to the absolute monarchy). Note : Since it seems to be quite a popular idea, I'll be assuming France starts the game with its lands divided among vassals (there is quite a lot about it in this forum, I recomend you read some of it if you're interested in french history). Not much change here, these traditions seems good to me. I've decided to buff the manpower to match Russian and Otto ideas because if I'm not mistaken, France was for quite some time the most densely populated country in Europe, so it doesn't feel right that they should have less manpower than other countries of the same size. The idea here is to represent french monarch Charles VII struggle to regain legitimacy and control over his subjects after his corronation in Reims in 1429 and his success against the english. While it all started before the game start date, for gameplay reasons I think it would not be right to get this as traditions since it would minimize the impact of starting with a lot of vassals because you would just be able to integrate them super fast and in just a few years you would be back to what France is in the current patch. And that's not what we want. Again I don't see anything to change, I've though about something that would affect estates but somehow it doesn't feel like this would belong in national ideas. Maybe then the idea should be named "Taille" (it was a tax created in 1439 that was collected by the king from every people in the realm -well every one who wasn't a noble, a priest or a rich merchant-, instead of just from his own domain as was the case before. It allowed him to increase his income by a considerable amount while curtailing the influence of local nobles). Élan : Not much to say for this one. France had one of the strongest army in the continent, worse than the prussian but better than the spanish, this idea perfectly reflect that. I've decided to swap it with general estates to make France a bit less unstopable so early in the game, allowing its rivals a bit more time to prepare for the incoming slaughter. This might not be necessary if their expansion is already hindered by some new feature though. The Renaissance actually got quite an impact France, notably with french king François I and his campaigns in Italy. While most renaissance artists came from Italy or the low-countries, François I and his successors ability to bring them to the french court allowed the country to enjoy some of their works, and more importantly embrace the ideas they brought. This notably led to nobles competing with their neighbours to have the most beautiful castles, abandonning their original military purpose to turn them into very big and luxuous domains so everyone could see their superior taste and bank account. And since there were already a lot of castles and rich nobles in the Loire valley, that's where the renaissance influence is the most visible. Louis XIV was quite traumatized in his childhood by a french nobles revolt called the Fronde which forced him to flee from Paris to save his life. This made him quite determined to take any sort of power away from the noble and centralize the state under a single rule : his own. He waged a constant war against the nobility, even moving his court from Paris to Versailles so the people in the city wouldn't be able to phisically reach him, and destroying the walls of Paris so he would be able to reach them.
I understand that national ideas are supposed to mix together things from every era contained in the game timeframe, but since France already has a unique revolution mechanic, wouldn't it be nice for it to also have the unique ability of changing its national ideas?
So here I am, trying to create two historically coherent and balanced sets of ideas (those will probably not be perfect though so feel free to comment and criticize if you don't agree).
France (kingdom) National Ideas :
Traditions :
+33% National manpower modifier
+1 Diplomatic reputation
End the hundred years war :
+1 yearly legitimacy
-15% subject annexation cost
I'd also add that some people have suggested France starting vassals should have some sort of special status in order to be historically correct while not affecting the game balance by too much. One of my suggestions to make those vassals specials would be to link the effects from diplomatic reputation to legitimacy instead. This way it would reflect the importance for any monarch who want his subjects to obey him to be recognized by god as the rightful ruler of the kingdom.
General Estates :
+10% National tax modifier
+20% Morale of armies
The Châteaux of the Loire valley :
+1 yearly prestige
-10% construction cost
The Sun king :
+0.20 yearly absolutism
+1 Diplomatic relations
I've also added the +1 Diplomatic relations because the french court under the Sun king was one of the most sophisticated Europe had ever seen (for better or worse) and, partly due to its political and military influence on the continent, the french courtisans way of life was a bit of an inspirations for courtisans all over the continent. Two ideas in one might be too much though, and I'm not sure the diplomatic relation really is necessary to make France feel historical.
The Count of Vauban :
-15% Fort maintenance on borders with rivals
+10% siege ability
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban is quite famous for the fortifications he built, but while he was undoubtedly one of the best in his time to make impregnable frotresses, he was also very good at sieging them down. He was actually one of the only military engineer at the time able to pierce the defenses he designed, and is responsible in no small part for the sucess of Louis XIV campaigns.
Eldest daughter of the church :
+2 yearly papal influence
Although initilally quite tolerant about the protestant reformation, with Henry IV issuing the Edit de Nantes to allow the protestants religious freedom and the right to possess land and even an army, France turned out to be the scene for a lot of religious conflicts, especially following Louis XIV revocation of the Edit de Nantes. Having slaughtered most the the Huguenots (french protestants), the country became fully catholic again, and with England and northern Germany no longer being welcome at the vatican, the competition became much more in favor of France.
Ambition :
+5% Discipline
Same as Elan, in order to be historically accurate, France must have the means to become the powerhouse it was in real life, and extra discipline does just that.
Traditions : Still one of the most populated country in Europe so there is no reason for the manpower to change. The french revolution instigated ideas that even now are still used by politicians who claims to defend the republican values. French troops were still a force to be reckoned with, changes in leadership didn't make them any worse. This declaration was the result of the national assembly that was held after the revolutionnary forces successfully seized the political power. In theory, it guaranteed that every man should be equal in front of the law, along with several other human rights that we today consider as granted. In practice though, it seems non-european people, as well as women, weren't yet concerned by the term "every man". But still, it was a great advancement. Same reason as why they are currently in the game, except I think their ideas were more suited to what the revolution promoted than to what the monarchy represented. Some of those philosophes were even forced into exile by the king who didn't like the ideas they were trying to spread to the population The ideas of the revolution, represented by those 3 words, were something the lower classes of french society had desired for quite a long time. To finally abolish the privileges of the clergy and nobility and replacing them with new principles, shaking up the whole social order definitely rendered a lot of the third-estate usual protests obsolete. And since they represented the vast majority of the population, their stability meant quite a lot. One of the few things Napoleon brought to France that didn't involve killing lots of people was his reform of the civil code and of the administration of the state. Though it contained a lot of things nobody would accept today (especially concerning women's rights), it was a big step toward a modern state and contributed a lot to making France prosperous again. Napoleon managed to form the biggest army the world had ever seen, and it took a coalition of no less than 4 major power to take him down. Reduced maintenance is meant to represent the fact that revolutionary armies fight to defend their ideals and therefore can be satisfied with less gold if they feel like they are really standing for something good.
+33% National manpower modifier
+1 Diplomatic reputation
French culture was also still something known and respected in most european courts, allowing for easier relations with those countries.
Birthplace of the Revolution :
+1 yearly republican tradition
Elan :
+20% Morale of armies
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen :
+2 Tolerance of heretics
+2 Tolerance of heathens
The philosophes :
-10% technology cost
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité :
-2 Unrest
Reform the civil code :
+5% administrative efficiency
The Grand army :
+20% Land force limit modifier
As far as balance is concerned, I'm not sure about this one, when combined with the bonus from being the revolution target it might make France too overpowered. In addition, two ideas focused around Napoleon might be a bit too much; though he did have quite an impact on this era, he was still just a man.
But I didn't have any other ideas ^^
Ambition :
-10% Land maintenance modifier
That's it for the ideas, thanks for reading and once again, feel free to comment 
I've also thought about some achievements that I think would be fun to implement :
Bourgogne Wine is better : As Burgundy, get the bonus from trading in wine and own the gascony area.
Bordeaux Wine is better : As Gascony, get the bonus from trading in wine and own the burgundy area.
and because wine and blobbing really are a french thing :
French wine, best wine : As France, own or have a subject own all wine producing provinces.
I'll stop suggesting world conquest-like achievement after this one, promise :
One baguette to rule them all : As France, own or have a subject own all grain producing provinces.
Le nord, c'était les corons : As a nation with Francien as its primary culture, own core provinces Cambray and Namur and have a furnace in each of them, while being the leading producer of coal.
(the name refers to a french song about coal miners in the north, might need a name understandable by people from other countries but I couldn't think of one).
Haute couture : As France, have the bonus for trading in cloth and own a cloth-producing province with a trade value of at least 20 (that's just a random number, I've no idea how hard this is to achieve)
There can only be one blue blob : As France, be the only independent nation with a blue map color
And last one, technically speaking it's not french but well it's all the same :
Brittany rules the waves : As Brittany, have more heavy ships than England/Great Britain.
