I know the French have a proud military history but they alos have had a history of losses Napoleon was defeated twice , they lost to the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 they had to be bailed out of World War I and were defeated by the Germans in World War 2 and they got ran out of Vietnam ( at that time French Indo China) so in the last 100 years they have gone down hill, I do not forget that with out the French we would have likely lost the Revolutionary war against Britian, the situation remains though that due to a string of defeats the French military has gained ( unfairly most likely) a reputation as second rate at best
