07-02-2025
'Charming but ungovernable' - What does it really mean to be French?
France's Prime Minister François Bayrou on Friday, called for a broad national debate on 'what it means to be French', saying that: "It's obvious that this question has been fermenting for years."
A bunch of tedious politicians swiftly waded in with their own definitions, but we're not going to bother with them - instead here's a look at how luminaries from writers to emperors have, over the centuries, attempted to define what it is to be French.
French spirit
Perhaps the most famous quote (or is it a misquote?) about France comes from Napoléon Bonaparte: Impossible n'est pas français - Impossible is not French.
Historians believe this happened in 1808 when he was attempting to encourage soldiers while invading Spain. However, it is entirely possible Napoleon has been misquoted and was actually speaking to a squadron of Polish light cavalry, not French soldiers.
Nevertheless, this expression has made its way into the French consciousness over the years, being trotted out by everyone from politicians to football managers, via a lot of advertising.
That kind of cheery positivity might sound rather un-French, however.
At the other end of the scale we have another very famous quote from the writer and traveller Sylvain Tesson: La France est un paradis peuplé de gens qui se croient en enfer - France is a heaven inhabited by people who believe they are in hell.
Stroppy
Think France, think revolution, right? There's certainly no shortage of people complaining that the French are ungovernable, mostly from people who have attempted to do just that.
Georges Pompidou said in 1971 - when he was two years into his presidency - [ Les Français] sont charmants, mais c'est un peuple impossible à gouverner - The French are lovely, but they are an impossible people to govern.
A more famous version of the same sentiment comes from another president, Charles de Gaulle, who once said Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays où il existe 258 variétés de fromages? - How can you govern a country which has 258 varieties of cheese? [Side note, there are many more than 258 types of cheese in France ]
Others take a more philosophical view of the question.
Nineteenth century writer Honoré Balzac said La France est un pays qui adore changer de gouvernement à condition que ce soit toujours le même - France is a country that loves to change its government on the condition that it always stays the same.
Sex symbols and lunch
Not everyone is so serious about trying to define Frenchness.
Actor and sex symbol of the 1960s Alain Delon once modestly said: Pour moi, la France c'est Alain Delon - For me, France is Alain Delon.
French poet Jean Cocteau took a slightly more wry view of his own people, saying: Les Français sont des Italiens de mauvaise humeur, et les Italiens sont des Français de bonne humeur - French people are Italians in a bad mood, and Italians are French people in a good mood.
For a foreign perspective, British writer and former Paris resident George Orwell said: "The clerks are French, and, like most French people, are in a bad temper till they have eaten their lunch."
Over to you . . .
