It never stops to annoy me.

[Drago]

After the footballer?

Yep, the English footballer. Indeed, Paris itself is named after the ex conservative MP, Matthew Paris, although moves are afoot to rename it after Disney.

In fact, the entire country of France is named after another Englishman, Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi.

 

[slowmotion]

And the reason we now have UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) is, apparently, because France didn't want GMT to be used as the international standard..

The idea of a Brussels Meridian was never going to catch on.

 

[Markymark]

Call that thing below Dover what you like.

The real English Channel starts in Gloucestershire and ends in Southend. Everything below that is basically France and should be avoided.

 

[Drago]

Good heavens above! Theres an Irish sea! How dare they!!!!

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I feel the same way about the Irish Sea, they should just call it Sea and don’t even get me started on the Indian Ocean

Too many cowboys.

 

[Slick]

What about those cheeky Yanks with their New England, and don't get me started on those pesky Canadians.

 

[benb]

Didn't England become part of France anyway in 1066?

No, England has never been part of France. William was Duke of Normandy. The Normans were not French, they were Norman. At that time the Kingdom of France did not include Normandy.

William did seek to eradicate traditional Anglo-Saxon culture after the invasion, it was at the expense of Norman culture (eg, he installed several Norman Earls and Barons as landowners in England) rather than French culture. England was still England; it was never subsumed into Normandy or France, but had a Norman king. He ruled as King of England, and was also still Duke of Normandy; he kept the administration of his 2 territories separate, so William never even made England part of Normandy let alone it being part of France.

 

[Threevok]

Channel McChannelface

 

[Chris S]

The North Sea used to be called the German Ocean. It probably will be again once Britain leaves the EU and Germany dominates it.

 

[NorthernDave]

Is Pimlico still part of the Duchy of Burgundy?

Perhaps @Markymark can advise?

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

No, England has never been part of France. William was Duke of Normandy. The Normans were not French, they were Norman. At that time the Kingdom of France did not include Normandy.

William did seek to eradicate traditional Anglo-Saxon culture after the invasion, it was at the expense of Norman culture (eg, he installed several Norman Earls and Barons as landowners in England) rather than French culture. England was still England; it was never subsumed into Normandy or France, but had a Norman king. He ruled as King of England, and was also still Duke of Normandy; he kept the administration of his 2 territories separate, so William never even made England part of Normandy let alone it being part of France.

They spoke French therefore they were French.

 

[benb]

They spoke French therefore they were French.

Haha, no they didn't. The Norman language was a mix of old Romance languages and Norse. It did then get some old French words added to it as well, but someone speaking Norman would have been unintelligible to a French speaker.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

It never ceases to annoy me when French blokes say 'it never stops to annoy me'....

Och I don't know, I find hearing slightly different usage from people whose first language isn't English quite endearing. I wish I was capable at French as @gavroche is at English!

 

[Brains]

It all went downhill after we gave them Calais back...

To be technically accurate Calais was not part of France until the 1580's
It was English for 250 years before that and Flemish or Boulougne before that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France#/media/File:French_borders_from_985_to_1947.gif

I can see the 'liberation' of Calais being a something the the more right wing Kippers will be proposing as a good thing to reunite the country

 

[Bazzer]

They spoke French therefore they were French.

I thought French was actually only spoken around Paris, with the rest of the country speaking different languages. French was imposed on the rest of the country.