France-Spain Thread

At least according to Wikipedia, France and Spain have been at war one way or another with each other a mere 37 times between 1209 and 1823. These two nations must hate each other! But they don’t really seem to. Not even over the War of the Spanish Succession, though I guess Charles II of Spain did name the future Philip IV from France as his successor in his will. Or the Franco-Spanish War of 1635-59, where the French provided key help to the Dutch to kick out the Spanish. Or of course the Napoleonic occupation of Spain in 1808. Certainly you can’t really choose which nation was worse as a colonial power. Spain pioneered a lot of these horrors and the French then perfected them.

I will say that I do not care about commenters saying the French are great because their team is so multicultural. First, that does not erase its horrible history and second, THANKS COLONIALISM. France continues to benefit from colonization. Great. Also, the French New Wave is massively overrated, especially Godard and Truffaut, who may be important but also did not make movies I like. I do love Rohmer and Varda though. But Almodovar is as great as any French filmmaker ever. The French have their bullshit philosophes in their powdery wigs, but Spain has Cervantes. And Javier Marias.

I don’t know, I guess the main point I’d like to make here is that I have generally liked the Spaniards in my life and, well, let’s just say that has not been the case for the French I have known. So, Go Spain. Plus if Spain and England both win, we can relitigate the Spanish Armada and won’t that be fun.