What’s offensive?
go ask Mr average Frenchie what they think of us.
They usually don’t trot out the random crap you get from the average Brit. I think the most you might get is calling the British rosbif and then it’s on to what they like about the UK. That said, if it’s light hearted, doesn’t really bother me.
Besides, I’d say we’ve saved their asses enough times to be allowed to occasional joke, no?
This is one bit that annoys me off a bit more. WW1 was a catastrophe for France (and Belgium) in ways the people of the UK couldn’t understand. Stats for military dead are 4.3% of the ENTIRE population with a further 13% wounded. As an adult male in France, you had far more chance of being wounded or killed in WW1 than you had of coming away unscathed. They suffered more than twice the overall casualties of the British (including empire soldiers). Bearing in mind that the British army in WW2 was accused by the Americans of being overly sensitive to casualties after WW1 losses.
Look at it from the French PoV. Population of 40M people, 1.6M dead, 4.5M wounded. As an adult male of military age (so approx 8-9M people) you were something like 60% likely to be killed or wounded. Kind of makes people jaded. For added statistic fun, in WW2 the French lost nearly 600k people through fighting and civilian deaths, the British 450k.
Over the top for an off the cuff remark I know, but sometimes information is useful 🙂