France actually tried to colonize Brazil, but the Portuguese kicked them out.
As well, the Portuguese "claimed" several parts of Canada including Newfoundland (which was also claimed by the English at the same time).
All of these excused of geography are complete bull. The real reason why this didn't happen OTL was because France was politically unstable at the time, in the midst of the Wars of Religion, and didn't have the resources or surplus population necessary to make large scale colonization at the time when Brazil was up for grabs.
If you can prevent the Wars of Religion, then you can see earlier successful French colonies in the Americas, and, yes, one of their top choices was Brazil.