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You may not believe this, but I now understand the frogs a bit better... Earlier today, I looked up the history of their flag:

History of French Flags... (excerpts)

[ From http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr~mon.html#pwe ]

Ensigns of the King's vessels

White ensign

by Pierre Gay

[ I had to put a non-existant border around it to make it show up... AFPhys ]

This flag is shown on Danckert's flag chart [ca.1700] [dan05], as #82, labelled 'Franse Witte Vlag' - French white flag.

[ From http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr_mon.html about France Flag history ]

... Anyway, Dauphin Charles had to find an emblem of his own. In 1422, when Charles VI died, he became Charles VII, adopted a white cross as emblem and a white flag as banner. Joan of Arc's famous banner was white with religious figures embroidered on it. Thereafter the three parties to the civil wars of 1420-36 are distinguished by the cross: white for the French, red for the English and red saltire for the Burgundians.

The white flag itself was the flag of commanding officers, such as colonel generals, and later colonels. In particular, it was the flag of the kKing when he was with the troops. ......

[ From http://www.acadian.org/flags.html ]

French [flag with fleur-de-lis shown here. The fleur-de-lis were optional]

Prior to the French Revolution, there was no national flag which represented France. A variety of flags were used by troops, different types of ships and for other purposes. From 1590-1790 this flag is one of four that was used on warships and fortresses. The plain white flag, known as the Bourbon Banner, and this white flag with three golden fleurs-de-lis, a white flag with many fleurs-de-lis, or a white flag with many fleurs-de-lis with the arms of France in the center. The simpler designs such as this were used in ordinary circumstances and it is believed that the [simply] white flag of France flew over all or most of the French forts and settlements in America.

I don't think I have much more to add to this little bit of history.

Perhaps this all 'splains itself...

No wonder the frogs have such trouble with this stuff... It's buried more deeply in their psyches than I realized.