France's turbulent past

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6372379.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6372947.stm

France is a country that has known occupation in the relatively recent past. The government has been moved from Paris to Bordeaux, I think three times : once during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, once in 1914, and once at the 1940 invasion. I often walk past the house where deGaulle spent the night before flying from Mérignac to London to continue the struggle from there.

The second BBC article shows that things are not always as cut and dried as they appear. Certainly the French word l'Etat has a very different feel from the English The State. L'Etat is glorious, strong and honourable. The State is sinister, scary and tolerated almost as a necessary evil.

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