I think their horrific losses in WW I should give the French a LITTLE bit of slack on the WW II issue.
The WW II campaign in France was over as soon as Rommel slipped his tanks unnoticed through the Ardennes and over the Meuse River. At that point, due to poor generalship and the too-short Maginot Line the Battle for France was over before it had even begun. There were no significant forces between Rommel and Paris.
from my history i remember the germans also had huge losses in WW I
And there was plenty between them and Paris. They didn't go to Paris, they went to the channel, to cut off the Allied armies in Belgium.
They were also counterattacked heavily by large French and British armor formations, at and just after the point of breakthrough. But they blew through them with ease.
Exactly. I remember reading a Military History article that talked about how the actual Maginot Line was not breached anywhere, with one brief exception. It actually worked, it just wasn't extended far enough. The French couldn't imagine that anyone could penetrate the Ardennes Forest, and left it unguarded. The Germans capitalized on that weakness. Had the Maginot Line extended all the way, WWII might have been over much quicker.