"usually" just means when their renewable power happens to be running.
French have been using the last few years to do maintenance on their nuclear plants.
Going into this winter, Germany will suffer far far more than France.
French have been using the last few years to do maintenance on their nuclear plants.
Going into this winter, Germany will suffer far far more than France.
In any case, this winter is very special. It‘s not a good example to make an argument for one technology or another. Long-term I think Germany is better prepared. A lot of work has been going into heat pumps, properly isolating houses, renewables and so on.
If renewables cannot handle WINTER then that's pretty telling of what quality of a solution it is.
France is in a much better situation. Better isolation, heat pumps are technology independent, you just need reliable electricity.
On the other side, if you have a central heating system, you can replace the burner with a heat pump and leave the rest mostly unchanged. I say mostly, as you want to optimize the whole system towards lower water temperatures to get higher efficiencies of the heat pumps. But this can be done, and if you have in-the-floor heating already, this can be skipped as that works with low water temperatures anyway.
I'm not sure if there is a major difference in insulation. Old houses are in Germany are not great, new houses usually are, and it's probably the same in France.