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I've worked with many Brits in Saudi, UAE, China, Korea, & Mongolia don't share your opinion...but glad to see you're now working together with the Frogs.
I've worked with many Brits in Saudi, UAE, China, Korea, & Mongolia don't share your opinion...but glad to see you're now working together with the Frogs.
A lot of British people live in France, have second homes in France or visit France on a regular basis and get on very well with the French, whilst a record number of French live here, especially in London.
The truth being the French were also a very good, cunning and at times extremely brave adversary, although we now enjoy a very good relationship with the French.
I don't have an opinion that the French are "cowards". That is just stupid. They have the same amount of cowards in their population as anyone else.
I'm sure they are very well educated and France is a great place. I'll never step foot there because for me it's not worth it. They don't like Americans and they like to make it known. They are just as guilty as ignorant Americans that think they are cowards.
Some years back I took my family on a cruise. One of the stops was St Martin island. The captain of the Princess Cruise ship we were on actually told us to stay away from the French side of the island because "they are a**holes" His exact words. I couldn't believe it. So we stayed on the Dutch side as instructed.
Oh boy . . .
If you'll never step foot there, how is it that you know they don't like Americans? You may find that French people are not the caricatures that other people tell you they are . . .
It appears that when Germans invaded in 1940, the majority of the French did not want to go through the WWI suffering and losses again. The surprise of German panzer divisions invading Belgium and Holland to circumvent the Maginot Line added to the overall effect. While France did fight a little in 1940, it was far less it should and could have, considering its resources.
It also must be added that not all the French were happy with the quick surrender.
General Charles de Gaulle left the country to form the Free French Forces.
Thanks to his courage, France ended the war along the Russia, US and Britain in the camp of the victors, not alongside the defeated Germany and Japan.
The French could've invaded Germany when Germany invaded Poland. The border was thinly guarded and the Germans had practically no armor there. Even if the eventual German counter-attack pushed the French back, they had a well fortified defensive line to fall back and would have had a better opportunity to fight the war of attrition that they would've preferred. France's capitulation in WW2 wasn't due to some mass scale pre-war war fatigue; it was because they gave the Germans the strategic initiative to fight on whatever terms they wanted.
Never mind WW2 which seem to obsess many people on this forum. Fact is along its long history (since Clovis in...482!) , France always picked up fights, first with her close neighbours (the hubdred years war with England for instance), then overseas (colonization). The peacock is thus an apt symbol of Frenchness.
So in my opinion, if the French have a fail, it's not being coward (that's an urban legend), it's the opposite, being overly aggressive.
Never mind WW2 which seem to obsess many people on this forum. Fact is along its long history (since Clovis in...482!) , France always picked up fights, first with her close neighbours (the hubdred years war with England for instance), then overseas (colonization). The peacock is thus an apt symbol of Frenchness.
So in my opinion, if the French have a fail, it's not being coward (that's an urban legend), it's the opposite, being overly aggressive.
But haven't they eventually lost every war they engaged in...even if it took 100 years?
Most would consider that France won the Hundred Years War since England pretty much lost most of the holdings in France that enabled the English claim to the French throne.
The French could've invaded Germany when Germany invaded Poland. The border was thinly guarded and the Germans had practically no armor there. Even if the eventual German counter-attack pushed the French back, they had a well fortified defensive line to fall back and would have had a better opportunity to fight the war of attrition that they would've preferred. France's capitulation in WW2 wasn't due to some mass scale pre-war war fatigue; it was because they gave the Germans the strategic initiative to fight on whatever terms they wanted.
I have few doubts about this reasoning,the french have a history of defeats against germans,it's more a phobia than a fatigue or some kind of strategic initiative !!
I have few doubts about this reasoning,the french have a history of defeats against germans,it's more a phobia than a fatigue or some kind of strategic initiative !!
Technically it's 2 victories out of three (without counting before German unification, but it seems that people bashing French don't know much history), even taking out WWII.
It remains WWI where the French were the main winner and those, excluding defeated Russians, who had lost the more men.
Then,France has been the military strongest power in Europe for centuries and since XV century it was considered in top 3 of European Military powers.
In comparison they won more war than anyone else and they were engaged in more war than anyone else.
I bet you to find someone with this record in such a long history.
Thanks for the reminder,it shows how prejudice and hostile were the french along their history,do we need to know more ? Go back to school to learn more about these ugly french wars ?
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