Football

There is a big divide between north & south in France & Germany. In Germany, one of the divisions is confessional: the north is broadly Protestant, and the south Catholic.

In France, the south is known as 'le Midi', which is the same word that the Italians use for the south of Ital (mezzogiorno). The cultural differences from the south to the north may be not quite as marked as in Italy (I'm not at all familiar with Italy) but they are not insignificant. Older people in Provence still remember when Provencal was widely spoken.

There is no 'big divide' in France. There are poorer areas but they're more evenly spread - there's no less well-off 'side'. A dialect dying out doesn't signal a 'not insignificant' difference.