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  1. "Nos ancêtres les Gaulois" (all French citizens are the same, whatever their actual origins)

  2. The French invented liberté, égalité, fraternité and qualité de vivre and bring them to the world (not these upstart Americans)

  3. My privileges are fair compensation; others' privileges must be eliminated in the name of equality (we all love to be a little bit more equal than others);

  4. Decentralisation must be run from Paris;

  5. The French love to tell this joke "Others think they are the best. The French know they are the best" and then explain what's wrong with France. They're the best at that too.


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Dec 7th, 2006 at 10:54:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
More cultural myths/popular standpoints:

  • "Impossible n'est pas Français", or nothing is impossible when you're French.

  • Our movies may always end sadly, have mediocre actors, and have ordinary life scenarios, they're nevertheless far better than any movie the Americans will ever produce.

  • We didn't really lose WWII (the referee should have red-carded Hitler for not playing fair).

  • Fast food is sacrilegious, but lousy ham and butter sandwiches served in a filthy brasserie are the best thing in the world.
by glomp on Thu Dec 7th, 2006 at 01:51:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Also:

"On a pas de pétrole mais on a des idées"/(We don't have oil, we have ideas);

"Champions du Monde des matchs amicaux" /World Champion in International Friendlies (no longer operative after 1998);

"La révolution est comme une bicyclette : quand elle n'avance plus, elle tombe." "Eddy Mercx!"..."Non, Che Guevara"

Competing myth from the right, dating from the Revolution forward (they never seem to come up with new, creative ways of expressing their disappointment with progress):

"La France dans la spirale du déclin"/The inexorable

Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant

by redstar on Thu Dec 7th, 2006 at 02:17:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
oops forgot to finish last phrase...should read The inexorable decline of France.

Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
by redstar on Thu Dec 7th, 2006 at 02:21:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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