I've heard such comments. I'm reading Verdun 1916, and I live part-time in a French village. It seems to me that they have both. They certainly have a sense of humour, although people who don't understand French wouldn't know that. They certainly have backbone; we weren't occupied by an invading army and they were. How would the English have got on if Churchill and Dad's Army had failed? The spivs and right-wing profiteers would have had a field day.
Atheist, I don't think that it is necessary at all that you should apologize, the thread did meander here and there, but that's what made it sort of interesting.
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