In my latest Prussia/NGF/GE game, I gave France one heck of a back-handing in their second attempt at taking back A-L. Occupied all of continental France for about 5 years right around 1870. It's 1900 now, and they're still convulsing. First the reactionaries put the Bourbons back on the throne, then the Jacobins knocked them off, then the communists, then the Jacobins, then the monarchists again, and just lately the Jacobins. It's been rather glorious to watch. I really wish you could intervene on behalf of a rebel cause in another country - I would've killed (lots of Frenchmen) to keep the white and gold fleur-de-lis over Paris...
These posts would be much more spectacular with pics.