France, in spite of many political problems, took to the new technologies fairly quickly and well. At present France is the strongest power in Europe and they're enjoying the fact that Britain, Germany, and Russia, are all aware of this.
The French are going into spaceflight in a big way. In this setting the Void Engineers, backed by the other Lab Rat Conventions and the Trads has driven the American space program to a moonbase, several
O'Neill type Space Colonies. One of these Colonies has been set on a transfer orbit to Mars Orbit. Once it gets there in 2035, Ion Drive Rockets are set to meet with this new base and stage a Mars landing. The French intend to beat the Americans to Mars. They are nominally doing this within the European Space Agency.
The Low countries and those lands called Scandinavian by English speakers, have also embraced the new technolgies, other European nations are playing catch-up. French dominance is resented to the degree a nation is having trouble catching-up.
More later.