French influence would be good for you Germanics. Look at how it helped the Anglophones.
Funny, French, because of Napoleon, also seeped into dialects. One of the West Low German words for "bad luck" is "malleur", clearly derived from "malheur".
In the May holidays I saw the throne and rooms of our first Dutch king, Lodewijk Napoleon, in the former capital of the Netherlands, Assen. His brother could not stand Lodewijk being too good for his kingdom, he got named "Lodewijk de Goede" (Louie the Good). So, in 1810, he had to let go of his position again.