Historically, France's industrial revolution didn't start much later than England's, but its progress was consistently about 20 years behind. It even got caught up and surpassed by Germany.
Certainly, the major revolution's impact on social production played a role, but the core issue was France's lack of coal and iron mines, especially after Alsace-Lorraine was occupied by Germany.
Currently, the development of Alsace-Lorraine is on track, but it's mainly rich in iron resources. There are some coal mines, but the veins are very scattered, leading to high extraction costs.
The Cologne coal mine, however, was the second largest coal field in later Germany.
The coal layers are shallow and very easy to extract, and once extracted, they can be directly loaded onto ships and transported along the Rhine River.
The overall extraction and transportation costs are outrageously low.
