There is some doubt round the office as to Stephen Fry's claim in the last series of QI as to France's military predominance.

So I googled round and found these two nuggets:

"When I went to the Tower of London, a Yeoman Warder asked if there were any French people in our tour group. A man raised his hand. The yeomen asked him to raise the other one so we all could recognize him"

and this, which includes: "Thirty Years War, France is technically not a participant, but manages to get invaded anyway. Claims a tie on the basis that eventually the other participants started ignoring her."