I'm not going to pretend I'm well-versed in this subject, I'm not. I was watching a show recently (can't remember the name) that is about Danish invasions of England some time around 877 AD or something. I've heard a lot in the past the usual jokes about vikings stealing up all the good looking women from England, etc - but I've always wondered...
Why did they do all the work to sail to England to do all their looting, pillaging, and possibly conquering? Why not just go to Germany or other nearby countries?
Also, if they are able to survive in their current territories now, why weren't they able to before? Could current day Swedes/Danes/Dutch not survive if not for modern conveniences?
Vikings actually did do raids in Francia. In the 810s, king Godfred of Denmark performed several raids on Frisia on the Dutch coast. Also, after the death of Louis the Pious in 840 and the subsequent fracturing of the Frankish empire into smaller kingdoms, there were a series of large raids, especially on the western coast in modern-day France.
Source: The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings, by John Haywood