(They are a proud people who are more accustomed to being being admired for their country's world-class cuisine, intellectual heritage and enviable lifestyle.)
Does anyone here admire the French for their intellectual heritage (socialism, the guillotine, the terror of the French Revolution) or envy their lifestyle (laziness, 50% are government jobs, frequent strikes, 10K neglected elderly cooked during one hot summer)?
They WISH to be the object of such envy.
To be fair, France did produce Aquinas, Abelard, a large bulk of medieval scholasticism, Hugo, David, Monet, Renoir, Rodin, etc...
Problem is that they've been running off of old fumes for the past 100+ years. They've produce good cinema these days. Not much else you can say, though.