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Thread: French-English Rivalry?

  1. #21
    SonofaBooyah's Avatar Vicarius
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    I think the 'rivalry' nowadays is nothing more than just harmless banter or sports related. That thing the OP mentioned about Sarkozy's visit sounds like just a bit of fun, and I doubt he would of took it to offence.

  2. #22

    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    I wouldn't even say it was that much of a sporting rivalry tbh. In football the biggest rivals of the English national team are the Home Nations, Argentina and Germany (oddly enough the Germans care more about the Dutch than the English). In athletics the big rivalry is with Australia. In Rugby it's the Home Nations and the Southern Hemisphere teams (AUS, NZ, SA) etc etc. The English-French rivalry really isn't all that big in sports for some reason.

    This being said there is still a huge rivalry between the two countries but it's more a case of banter these days than anything else. Like when Chirac dissed British food before the 2012 Olympics vote, or when Cameron came out and said that we'd welcome any rich French citizens who wanted to avoid the 75% tax rate Hollande is trying to pass through. Then when the French economy was under threat of losing it's credit rating and a French politician came out and starting whining about why Britain hadn't been downgraded.

    It's definitely still there, I personally for some imperceptible reason have a much better opinion of Germany than France despite everything that happened in the 20th Century and practically everything about your average French personality rubs me up in the wrong way.

  3. #23
    SonofaBooyah's Avatar Vicarius
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    I don't mind France really, I'd always banter with one if I talked to a Frenchman (If he spoke English of course) but nothing serious. Same with Germany. The only nation I genuinely dislike is Argentina.

  4. #24

    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by bradavies View Post
    I don't mind France really, I'd always banter with one if I talked to a Frenchman (If he spoke English of course) but nothing serious. Same with Germany. The only nation I genuinely dislike is Argentina.
    My opinion of France can literally be summed up as so:



    I have a ton of respect for the French but something just rubs me up the wrong way about them. The Argentines on the other hand, they are led by the most ridiculous idiotic politicians known to man.

  5. #25

    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    No one likes the french but themselves.
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    -Plutarch, life of Demetrius.

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  6. #26
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    I respect France but some of the French people can get annoying. Also their whole self vision that they are superior is arrogant thought among many a French person. I feel difficulty thinking about the Argentine people since I don't really see people in colonies as their own peoples. Being from one of these colonies (Colombia) I always felt I was Spanish and never understood how "Colombian" I was. It is sort of like a made up ethnicity or nationality for the sake of saying that your country is great and that you deserve your own nation, when in reality I can't really tell the difference between Colombian and Venezuelan people and I also can't see what is different between Bolivians and Peruvians or Argentines and Paraguayans.

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  7. #27
    Roma_Victrix's Avatar Call me Ishmael
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by Wulfburk View Post
    No one likes the french but themselves.
    Oh yeah? You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Arthur King, you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets. Thpppppt! Thppt!Thppt!

    I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! You mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

    How you English say, 'I one more time, mac, unclog my nose in your direction', sons of a window-dresser! So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly knees-bent running about advancing behavior?! I wave my private parts at your aunties, you cheesy lot of second hand electric donkey-bottom biters.

    No chance, English bed-wetting types. I burst my pimples at you and call your door-opening request a silly thing, you tiny-brained wipers of other people's bottoms!


  8. #28

    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by Wulfburk View Post
    No one likes the french but themselves.
    I think not. The people of Mali, especially in Timbuktu, are cheering 'Vive le France' for saving them from the madcap tourist attraction destroyers Muslim radical militants. Hollande must be feeling proud of himself.


    Quote Originally Posted by Roma_Victrix View Post
    Oh yeah? You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Arthur King, you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets. Thpppppt! Thppt!Thppt!

    I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! You mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

    How you English say, 'I one more time, mac, unclog my nose in your direction', sons of a window-dresser! So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly knees-bent running about advancing behavior?! I wave my private parts at your aunties, you cheesy lot of second hand electric donkey-bottom biters.

    No chance, English bed-wetting types. I burst my pimples at you and call your door-opening request a silly thing, you tiny-brained wipers of other people's bottoms!

    How do you know he's English? For goodness sake, stop being the very stereotype of an anti-Anglais Frenchman like de Gaulle.
    “No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them” ― Elie Wiesel
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  9. #29

    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    But anyway, here's a whole lot of infuriating quotes about the French or by the French:
    That sweet enemy, France - Sir Sidney Smith
    We should be flattered - every foreigner in London is called a "French dog". - Fougeret de Montbron
    A Frenchman must always be talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say - Samuel Johnson
    The English have corrupted the mind of my kingdom. We must not expose a new generation to the risk of being perverted by their language. - Louis XV
    The French believe that the talking of love is making it. - Laurence Sterne
    I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighbouring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded airs of superiority. - Horace Walpole
    Londoners think that in Paris we are covered in braids but are either dying of starvation or are eating nothing but frogs. - Louis-Sebastian Mercier
    Something that is not clear is French. - Antoine de Rivarol
    ...and thirdly, you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil. - Horatio Nelson
    England is an island of shopkeepers. - Napoleon Bonaparte
    Frenchmen are like gunpowder, each by itself smutty and contemptible, but mass them together and they are terrible indeed. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    The French are the wittiest, the most charming and up till now at least, the least musical race on Earth. - Stendhal
    To err is human. To laze about is Parisian. - Victor Hugo
    The best thing I know between France and England is the sea. - Douglas William Jerrold
    English is just badly pronounced French. - Georges Clemenceau
    I'd rather have a Kraut division in front of me than a French one behind me. - George S. Patton
    England, like Germany, is our hereditary enemy. - Charles de Gaulle
    I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you, they do it so nicely. - Josephine Baker
    A person who speaks three languages is trilingual, two languages is bilingual and one language is English. - Claude Gagniere
    One in four Englishman is gay. - Edith Cresson
    English cooking: if it's cold, it's soup. If it's warm, it's beer. - Anon Frenchman
    “No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them” ― Elie Wiesel
    "No nationality or race is preferred over another in any way in the Eyes of the Almighty" - Mufti Ismail Menk
    “What's unnatural is homophobia. Homo sapiens is the only species in all of nature that responds with hate to homosexuality.” ― Alex Sanchez
    “Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
    “Nationalism is an infantile thing. It is the measles of mankind.” ― Albert Einstein

  10. #30

    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by heil nappy View Post
    A Frenchman must always be talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say - Samuel Johnson
    "OATS — A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." - Samuel Johnson

    "It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm." - Samuel Johnson

    "Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy!" - Samuel Johnson (ordering a whiskey)

    "Norway, too, has noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects. But, Sir, let me tell you, the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!" - Samuel Johnson

    Let's not pretend every stereotype ever uttered was limited to Anglo-French relations.

  11. #31

    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by heil nappy View Post
    How do you know he's English? For goodness sake, stop being the very stereotype of an anti-Anglais Frenchman like de Gaulle.
    Not sure if serious, so...



    And De Gaule position was political, when (free) France was at the mercy of the british, he felt he had to be intransigent and haughty to ensure France's position after the war. Might sound like being ungratefull and whatever, but while i consider he could have been a bit more diplomatic on occasions, he was globally right (just seeing what the allies had in mind for liberated France).

    Edit

    I am not so sure about the supposed arrogance of the french as a whole... (Other than a stereotype). We might be... But then that's also the image many have of the american and english i would say, so coming from them, it's quite funny...

    However i am all ready to agree that we usually make very poor tourists. Always complaining about the food, or the hotel, or how things aren't like this or that...
    And always afraid of being ripped off when buying something (well that's quite understandable as a tourist, but that can be tiring on the long run).
    Last edited by Keyser; February 20, 2013 at 10:47 AM.

  12. #32
    Roma_Victrix's Avatar Call me Ishmael
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by heil nappy View Post
    How do you know he's English? For goodness sake, stop being the very stereotype of an anti-Anglais Frenchman like de Gaulle.
    And how do you know I'm French? I'm obviously not, I'm a goddamn American. And wow...apparently Monty Python is entirely lost on you. My mistake for thinking every human being knows what the Holy Grail is.

  13. #33
    Diocle's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    La Garde Meurt Mais Ne Se Rend Pas!!!Vive la France! Vive L'Empereur!



  14. #34
    Menelik_I's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by Sar1n View Post
    Reminded me of an old joke:

    A german tourist decides to visit France. He arrives at the borders, where customs officer starts asking questions.
    "Name?"
    "Hans Sauerkraut."
    "Occupation?"
    "No, just visiting."

    Yeah, the bad blood is now between France and Germany. WWI and WWII fixed things a bit between France and Britain a bit I think.
    rep.

    The Animosity between France and England actually started from a Feudal dispute between the French Normans and the Kings of France until the Normans decided that they deserved the throne.

    In a sense you could say that the Hundred Years war is more of a Civil War then an actual war of conquest, the description of it as an English Invasion is modern revisionism to up French Patriotism, because the Descendants of Williams the Conqueror, aka Bastard, were as French as you could at the time and so had a legitimate claim to the throne.
    « Le courage est toujours quelque chose de saint, un jugement divin entre deux idées. Défendre notre cause de plus en plus vigoureusement est conforme à la nature humaine. Notre suprême raison d’être est donc de lutter ; on ne possède vraiment que ce qu’on acquiert en combattant. »Ernst Jünger
    La Guerre notre Mère (Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis), 1922, trad. Jean Dahel, éditions Albin Michel, 1934

  15. #35
    Anna_Gein's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by Menelik_I View Post
    rep.

    The Animosity between France and England actually started from a Feudal dispute between the French Normans and the Kings of France until the Normans decided that they deserved the throne.

    In a sense you could say that the Hundred Years war is more of a Civil War then an actual war of conquest, the description of it as an English Invasion is modern revisionism to up French Patriotism, because the Descendants of Williams the Conqueror, aka Bastard, were as French as you could at the time and so had a legitimate claim to the throne.
    I don't really agree to your lecture of the Hundred Years war. Edward III did a lot of efforts to increase the sense of English nationality in his kingdom.

    It is true what we we call the "English - French rivalry" started in fact as a rivalry between a King and his nominal vassals who became a King too. But I think on the opposite that the Hundred Years war mark a definitive turning point of this rivalry to make it one of nation rather that feudal lords.

  16. #36
    Menelik_I's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by Anna_Gein View Post
    I don't really agree to your lecture of the Hundred Years war. Edward III did a lot of efforts to increase the sense of English nationality in his kingdom.

    It is true what we we call the "English - French rivalry" started in fact as a rivalry between a King and his nominal vassals who became a King too. But I think on the opposite that the Hundred Years war mark a definitive turning point of this rivalry to make it one of nation rather that feudal lords.
    Actually the Hundred Years War is the prototypical Feudal conflict and politics, because not highligting the the English Nature of their Dominions would have meant that they were subordinate to the Kinds of France even in England, so they would have made the Plantagenets kings of both France and England. When things started going sour they really had to up their English status to not lose face, that is just the nature of politics.

    If you are unhappy with your feudal lord but can't replace him, declare yourself equal to him is the Feudal Logic.
    « Le courage est toujours quelque chose de saint, un jugement divin entre deux idées. Défendre notre cause de plus en plus vigoureusement est conforme à la nature humaine. Notre suprême raison d’être est donc de lutter ; on ne possède vraiment que ce qu’on acquiert en combattant. »Ernst Jünger
    La Guerre notre Mère (Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis), 1922, trad. Jean Dahel, éditions Albin Michel, 1934

  17. #37
    René Artois's Avatar Dux Limitis
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by Diocle View Post
    Vive L'Empereur!
    Isn't that expression rather defunct?
    Quote Originally Posted by Menelik_I View Post
    In a sense you could say that the Hundred Years war is more of a Civil War then an actual war of conquest, the description of it as an English Invasion is modern revisionism to up French Patriotism, because the Descendants of Williams the Conqueror, aka Bastard, were as French as you could at the time and so had a legitimate claim to the throne.
    Bit of an oversimplification here. Even by the time of the Angevin Kings of England, the lords of England were starting to identify themselves more as English than Norman. One of the main reasons for the civil war under King John was that most of them no longer owned lands in Normandy (even before the French took it), so they viewed the increasingly expensive and damaging wars in the continent as not something he should involve them in. Even John came to see them mostly as cash cows which could enable him to hire mercenaries to make up his army.

    By the 14th century English lords definitely had a strong sense of Englishness. Of course, no matter what the English kings viewed themselves as, they were so far removed from the continent that they were the English kings, leading the English armies, making it an international war.
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    it stirs up the white-waved sea.
    I do not fear the coursing of the Irish sea
    by the fierce warriors of Lothlind.

  18. #38
    Diocle's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Quote Originally Posted by René Artois;
    Isn't that expression rather defunct?
    The man is dead but the ideas he brought evrywhere in Europe not for sure!

    At least not here in Italy, we are few but who can forget that he gave us the first Italian Unified Nation? Who can forget Rivoli? Castiglione? Cairomontenotte? The British fleet bombing my town Genoa, in which Massena was fighting like a lyon against the Reaction? Who can forget the Austrians kicked in the arse at Marengo?

    ...the Emperor is no more trendy? who cares........., he is still trendy in the mind of those who still love the three words: 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité'!

    ....to the others only one word, the same of Cambronne, now as then: "Merde!"


  19. #39
    SonofaBooyah's Avatar Vicarius
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Her Majesty>L'Empereur

    Yea, I went there Frenchies.

  20. #40
    Manco's Avatar Dux Limitis
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    Default Re: French-English Rivalry?

    Is it just me or does this rivalry exist more in the heads of the English than in the French's?

    Living at the French border and working with quite a few French people, none of them ever bring it up.
    Some day I'll actually write all the reviews I keep promising...

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