"The kings of medieval France were fascinated by the Mongols, who they saw as great empire builders."

Well, surprising, as they were supporting military actions against Mongols, plus medieval France was nothing like Mongols empire in terms of social live organization, way of fighting wars (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_and_Truce_of_God).

Later, in XV century, France started to turn into Mongols-like regime, but those weren't medieval times.