Done as a joke?

I know! It's so pretty...

 

what the hell are you talking about?

Cant speak for Scotland, but France was always viewed here as "enemy of my enemy" and thus friend. Never heard anti-French sentiment here

 

I'm French and I've lived abroad for many years, 4 of them in Scotland.
Now I know France is disliked by many, but Scotland.... You can't be serious.

I agree the UP isn't the most adequate, and Rhye once told me of another UP and I thought it was a really good idea. I guess it's up to him to tell what it was.
I had another idea, which was the power of centralization, which would give a bonus of some kind to the capital city http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=222097. We'll have to leave it for RFC on Civ5.

 

The initial remark is a non-sense. Is there some credible source which could prove that "french is hated worldwide"? It's a Joke.

 

Yeah, I agree. But to say that everybody hates the French... Bush-lovers might hate the French. Although I agree Parisians - I can only say this because my family is from there, so don't any of you dare - but yeah Parisians are a bit uptight. OK, very rude sometimes. But at least they leave their city in the summer for 70 million tourists to enjoy... At least THEY'RE not there, hehe...

Oh, and to my Italian cousins: I think Italy is the second most beautiful country in the world.

 

Actually the first time that this diplomatic power was associated with France was in Colonization (that was another great game from Sid Meier long long back in the nineties).

In Colonization France had diplomatic boni with the natives.

Apart from this I am one hundred percent convinced that this power is fitting throughout the whole history (if we exclude the Celts and just see the Frankish (French) from the Dark Ages onwards.

Lets see, France in XXI. Century is surrounded by allies and economic partners, has a good reputation worldwide. It has friendly relations and diplomatic influence in all former colonies (despite some nasty independence wars). It is hosting several multinational companies, it is hosting several institutions of world rank and has in general much more diplomatic weight than it ever should have if you just count the economy or military. That is not bad for the Grande Nation, which is actually a quite small country.

If there are any negotiations in Africa , who is invited ? France.
If anything important is happening in Europe, who is consulted ? France.
Talk about United Nations, about ECB, about the ESA (about Airbus), about the German Reunion, the Expansion of European Union, the Civil War in Balkans, the fires in Middleeast, Africa, South-East Asia and who is always in the boat ? France ...
And this just in XXI. and XX. century. In the XIX. century France had even more diplomatic influence, actually being the second largest colonial power, not to mention the Golden Age in XVII. Century or the French Revolution in XVIII. Century. Not to mention that France had its own Pope, that Charlemagne was French etc. etc. ...

We Germans always envied France and French lifestyle, but finally even we made our peace with them (at first forcefully, but then quite deliberately) .... and a nation that could appease the German Juggernaut has to have diplomatic skills !!

Besides .. imho Italy is actually the most beautiful country in Europe. It has simply everything : Ancient Ruins and Modern Theatres, Low Cost Markets and Luxury Shops, Street Cafes and poshy nightclubs, Sunny Beaches and Ski Resorts, wine of Toscana and the pizza of Napoli, Italian Cuisine and Italian Ice-cream, Michelangelo and Tutti-Frutti, last but not least Italian Women and Foreign Tourists (dont know much about Italian men , sorry ) anything else required ?

 

You really like Roman numerals...

 

I had seen this quite often in English literature so I assumed it was the proper expression .. (being no native speaker, you know)

 

Just Nth Century is far more common.

 

@Rod

you were going well, until when you said wine of Tuscany instead of wine of Piedmont. Shame, you ruined an otherwise perfect long post

 

The Irish don't hate France. France once tried to invade Ireland to get rid of the English. Traditionely Ireland would like France because it was a Catholic country and alot of the time a Democracy. We also like France because they hate England and always beat them at football and rugby .

 

I didn't mean literal hatred for the French. More of a... hate them in jest sort of thing. Like America with Canada, or any European nation and "the Dutch."
Most of the anti-French jokes I've heard have come from Ireland and Canada, though the latter kinda shocked me until I learned that most Canadians are really tired of French Canadians giving the nation a bad name.

 

and then you woke up. what happened then?

 

France has good reputation.
That's why we can make fun of France, right?
When someone says s/he hates N.Korea/Iraq, we don't think that can be a joke.

Here are BBC polls:
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/168.php?nid=&id=&pnt=168&lb=hmpg1
http://www.globescan.com/news_archives/bbccntryview/backgrounder.html

 

I never heard any european jest about the dutch... anyone ?

 

Of course, but more in a nice sense when they get onto your nerve in the Winter holidays when you want to go Skiing/Snowboarding, and the Dutch family before is horribly scared of the Alps and how deep it goes to the valley... And they are slow on the alpine roads...

Oh, and "Miss Dutch" is an expression for a girld who is flat-chested [no, not due to the Dutch, but the highest dutch elevation is probably around 25 metres... ]

But these sort of things (as with the French) exist with every European nation. Just count all the "a Nation-X-inhabitant, a Nation-Y-inhabitant and a Nation-Z-inhabitant ...."-jokes...

that's normal and I think nobody is offended by that anymore...

m

 

I dunno mate, I'm a big fan of Chianti myself

EDIT: On the topic, there is a bit of off remarks about the French here and there, but I think its more the typical neighbor tease than anything else. I haven't lived in a country that doesn't like to make fun of its neighbors.

 

/OT festival on

because you live abroad and Chianti is much, much more commercialized abroad than Piedmont's wine (which btw has a much wider variety of wines than Tuscany AFAIK, including "spumante", or aperitives/drinks like the most famous Martini). Even Rhye would bow down to Piedmont's wine, if he was honest enough

/OT festival off

 

Yeah, that's fair enough. I did try some Sicilian wine this weekend that was lovely - let me see if I can fish out what kind it was. It had me reminiscing of Sauvignon, but had some extra flavour in the background that I still can't place but it was amazing...

Back on topic! France sucks! (No, not really - I'm just masquerading my OTness)

About the Dutch, yeah I've heard a couple of quips alright... but definitely not frequent nor malicious. Again, just kinda playful banter.

 

He only used it XI times.