Is there a way to type German and French characters from the stock keyboard? I want to type French and German accents and stuff using some kind of add-on to the stock keyboard.  I don't want to switch between boards.  I see there are a lot of keyboards in the Play store but I need one that doesn't interfere with the stability of the stock one.

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.1.1
You can "long press" a key, which will give you alternative letters if alternative symbols are associated with it. Try it with the letter "E". To select the desired letter/symbol slide your finger to the side.