WI: France declares bankruptcy in the late 1700s?

This might be a dumb idea but its one I'm interested in. For the later half of the eighteenth century France was basically teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and the failure of reforms to bring the country's finances back from the brink caused the French revolution. So my question is this: what if France declared bankruptcy instead of trying to claw their way out if it?

After all Spain under Felipe II declared bankruptcy on four separate occasions, so clearly this wasn't a new idea. Would suspending or repudiating payment on the national debt help France or would it destroy whats left of her finances? Basically what's the short and long-term affects of such a decision?

Is this before they started the Assembly of Notables?If it is before,then the regime might be salvageable,if it's after then,it's probably too late.The Finance Minister at the time started a propaganda war with the nobility in hopes of inciting the public against the nobles,it backfired badly and ended up politicizing the until then largely apolitical French masses.

What is important to know is that Frnce did actually go for a bankrupcy in 1796, under the Directorate. It made a haircut in no less than 2 thirds of its public debt.

Bankrupcy was one of the solutions when neither the nobility, nor the clergy, nor the bourgeoisie wanted to pay more taxes.

The other solution, the one chosen in 1789, did not work : yelstinian privatizations of public properties that sustained the public healthcare and education systems run by the Church.