COT wise I was wondering, how about taking out the French COT from the start ? It's puny really then anyway and it'd weaken France a bit. Make it the same as England and Holland. From the moment they get a decent colonial empire going make it pop up (Paris has a historical COT modfier of 4). Now this is an area where I'm not too xure about, either new COTs are trigger efected or quite hardcoded. If they're trigger effected however, judging by the fact that Anglia and Holland get one once they start colonising, then Paris should also get one once the French start colonising. Ever noticed how every colonial power in Europe has its own COT even if it hasn't much value in Europe itself ?