Strange, how the subject of history can crop up.

There we were, my son and I, chatting with a friend at a party in Saudi Arabia. The friend, who actually was really more my son's friend at that point, had an American father and an Ethiopian mother. Now, he'd spent a fair amount of time in the Middle East although had completed his education the U.S. Somehow the subject of France came up. We (my son and I) made a few disparaging remarks and so the friend shook his head and said, "What is it with you guys and the French?" "Listen", we responded, "when you've been fighting someone for a thousand years you get to know them pretty bloody well!"

Yes, we English do have a certain 'understanding' of the French, don't we?