France has lot more electricity demand in winter than in summer (due to electric heating and not a lot of AC). They traditionally stop their plants in summer to

France has lot more electricity demand in winter than in summer (due to electric heating and not a lot of AC). They traditionally stop their plants in summer to maintain and refuel them. So it is easy to look in the middle of summer and say "Look, half of France's reactors are offline! It is obviously not working out! They should have been green like us and use lignite and Russian gas!!!" France also messed up when they decided to postpone some maintenance due to COVID (not sure how that was a valid reason) and they have a lot to do this time, so it is taking longer than usual.