Who invented Vercingétorix? 
Julian Jackson
- Rethinking France: Les Lieux de mémoire. Volume I: The State by Pierre Nora, translated by Mary Trouille
Who broke the Vase of Soissons? Once, every French school child would have known the answer to that question, as they would have known that their ancestors were Gauls with blue eyes and blond hair (they knew this even if they were learning their lessons in Africa or the West Indies); that Charlemagne had a flowing white beard and cared about education (but he may have been most popular because his coronation date, 800, was so easy to remember); that Philip Augustus was a good king because he beat the Germans; that Catherine de Médicis was a bad woman because she killed so many Protestants; that Henri IV wanted every peasant to have a chicken in the pot on Sundays.
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Julian Jackson is professor of French at the University of Wales, Swansea. His latest book is France: The Dark Years 1940-44.
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