You don't even have to for that far back. During the Second World War there was a massive resistance movement by the french population against the german occupation.

The "French surrender" memes says way more about their elites than their people.

The whole "French surrenders" thing is missing context.

My understanding is that the term originated in WW2 when Nazi Germany invaded and France didn't put up a fight. Conservatives in the USA called them cowards etc but what they didn't know (like they cared) was that the French have been very effective in war for centuries even before the USA was a thing.

The French knew they were going to lose any war with Germany at this point in the war and relied on their allies to help them out. Surrender was the best possible option for them to save lives.

Anyone who says that the French are weak don't know shit about their history and don't know how their alliance has helped the US.

Of course the coward thing is just american media.

The French army, still to this day, has the best battle record of any army in history. They didn't get a record like that by being cowards.

French politicians during WWII were quitters. The population on the other hand were not. There's always been a strong disconnect between the Rulers and the Ruled, which is fairly normal. What sets France apart is the Ruled's willingness to set things on fire.

It 100% is a psyop at this point.

Like, the entire original basis of it was 'the French got their Maginot Line flanked/routed around during WW2 and failed to hold the line in Belgium, therefore they are all idiot cowards."

That and maybe possibly that they largely pulled out of Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) after Dien Ben Phu, leading to rhe partition of Vietnam into North and South, and generally greater US involvement in South East Asia.

Then, they wouldn't join us for Iraq 2, therefore: FREEDOM FRIES!

... So pretty much the first one is reductionist as fuck from a history/military standpoint, and the other two are... broadly now recognized to have just been total horrific mistakes and tragedies and basically just big warcrimes and wastes of lives and money on the part of all Western powers involved... and supposedly even most anti-war/anti-interventionist conservatives now also believe this.

So, yeah, the entire thing is basically, at this point, 99% a bunch of stupid nonsense that is largely admitted to be based on mistakes and jingoism.

I agree with everything you've said except the bit about snails. People were already eating snails back in ancient Rome, probably even earlier than that. The French did however have the brilliant idea of drenching their snails in garlic+butter+parsley.