Yes and they also mutinied and refused to conduct offensives -p though given the poor tactics of the French officers I can’t fault them too much for that. In both the Franco Prussian war and WW1 and WW2 the French troops were let down by officers who did not understand the tactics being used against them. In the Franco-Prussian War the French failed to see how to use the then new repeating rifles and early rapid fire weapons relying on tactics developed by Napoleon 60 years earlier. However the fortifications of Paris built by Louis-Napoleon around Paris held off the Prussians even though the French lost the soldiers in the army fought well and bravely. In WW1 the French overall commander setup his headquarters in a building without a telephone or telegraph access. In WW2 the French did not know how to use their tanks .
Perhaps it is only French officers that surrender automatically.
So yeah point taken. I was simply trying to say they have at time fought bravely before surrendering.
If I remember my history correctly, it wasnt the fortifications of Napoleon III that stopped the Prussian army. The Prussians halted their advance to let the French army go back into Paris and put down the Paris Commune. After the battle started up again, they captured the Emperor. As was said of the British in WWI, they fought like lions led by donkeys.