What do you know about... France?

[u/MarktpLatz]

This is the sixteenth part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Todays country:

France

France is the second most populous country in the EU. They were the most important voice in creating the EU (and its predecessors), to elevate their own power and to prevent further war with Germany. Hence, French is a very important language for the EU and especially for some institutions like the ECJ whose working language is French. They have just elected a new president last sunday and they will have parliamentary elections in june.

So, what do you know about France?

[u/[deleted]]

I've only been to Paris and some of the country side/small towns outside of it.

I stayed little over a week, and it rained almost everyday. Is that common? Food was delicious, and I saw all of the classic Paris sights, but I didn't want to be too much of a tourist.

I know a decent amount from ww2 history. People like to joke about France surrendering, but no one every mentions just how scarred the country was from ww1. France was instrumental in ww1, and as a result, lots of soldiers were killed and the military wasn't really up for another invasion, if I'm not mistaken. And then there was the Vichy regime, which was Southern France, right?

Also, the US owes France for their efforts in our Revolutionary war. Thanks for the freedom, France! Sorry about the whole freedom fries bit, you guys were totally right on that one.

Also, Doctors Without Borders was founded in France/by the French, and I very much hope to join one day.

La Grave is an amazing ski resort, and I hope to go one day. It's featured on my skis http://skipass.fr/p/news/115541/micro-news-k2-coomback-la-grave-9a6a2-1.jpg (If a French speaker would translate, I wouldn't mind)

And you have lots of nuclear power (75%ish?) which is a great idea and I wish we had more of that.

[u/Pklnt → u/[deleted]]

I know a decent amount from ww2 history. People like to joke about France surrendering, but no one every mentions just how scarred the country was from ww1

To be honest i wouldn't be surprised (i'm French) that this joke can be the easiest to trigger a French. It's easily taken as an insult for every soldiers that fought for our country. Not that you cannot use it, but i'd say make sure that you intend to joke on that.

For the Vichy regime there's a lot to say, it's highly controversial (even nowadays) because Vichy France collaborated with Nazi Germany and some of our politics nowadays recognize Vichy France crimes as crimes that France should aknowledge whereas some say that France had nothing to do with it.

[u/julably → u/Pklnt]

To be honest i wouldn't be surprised (i'm French) that this joke can be the easiest to trigger a French.

On reddit or other anglophone sites yeah, but outside of that french people have no idea about this "joke".

[u/French_honhon → u/Pklnt]

To be honest i wouldn't be surprised (i'm French) that this joke can be the easiest to trigger a French. It's easily taken as an insult for every soldiers that fought for our country

Can tell you all my family uncles,grandpas etc... who fought in the WW2 are triggered whenever they hear that. Some of them come from the colonies,which were heavily used by France.

[u/-Golvan- → u/[deleted]]

France was very much prepeared for a second invasion, but the Germans got very lucky when they went through the Ardennes

[u/s3rila → u/[deleted]]

I think you're wrong on Vichy : The territory under the control of the Vichy government was the unoccupied, southern portion of France south of the Line of Demarcation, as established by the Armistice of June 22, 1940, and the overseas French territories, such as French North Africa, which was "an integral part of Vichy"

the northern part was occupied so under German rule while the rest , the "free" zone was under vichy rule

[u/[deleted] → u/s3rila]

Vichy officially ruled over all of France from 1940 to 1944 and the borders remained the same throughout, apart for Alsace-Lorraine that was annexed by Germany. But the German military occupied the northern part so they mostly did what they wanted there and French authorities had to comply. In 1942 the German military invaded and occupied the southern part as well. While the French government continued to exist it became essentially subordinate to the German military.