""French" is not a race like "English" or "German" is. It is an idea."
Hate to break this to you, but that's totally false.
The French may be trying to MAKE it *merely* an idea, but it has always historically been an ethnicity.
The USA, OTOH ironically, was not founded as ethnically based and is, in fact, as it always has been, based on an idea. Not based on indigenous populations as has every other country been.
"Hate to break this to you, but that's totally false.
The French may be trying to MAKE it *merely* an idea, but it has always historically been an ethnicity"
Not really.
France is composed of ancient provinces that have different cultures and different languages.
The Bretons of Brittany speak a form of Gaelic and are Celts. Nextdoor, the Normans of Normandy are descended from the Vikings. Next to them, Picardy is peopled by the Flemish. Just to the south, Alsace and Lorraine, of World War I fame, are heavily Germanic provinces of France.
In the south, Savoy and Provence were once Roman and are heavily Italianate. Toulouse and Carcassone regions are Catalan in roots.
Auvergne is Gaulois.
The overseas departments are largely black African or polynesian in origin.
All of these people are French because their lands were provinces of the King of France, and were incorporated into the French Republic. That gave them one law.
Universal education has given them one language, and this unity in language and law and faith, wrought by the government, is what makes the Alsatians, Bretons and Guadeloupeens French. They are not the same ethnicity or race, and they do not have the same cultures in very many respects.
German, Irish or English are ethnicities.
French, British or American are nationalities.
The difference is pretty clear.