The difference is that Germany's investments in renewables at a time when they were still expensive helped to create an economy of scale, which brought down prices for everyone and helped trigger a huge amount of investments worldwide. France build an unsustainable nuclear industry that was forced to sell electricity below cost and had to be renationalized to survive.
You won't find any grid which isn't subsidized, remember Germany already spent ~2x the French grid and that didn't spend by itself.