Franconius, I think you have a point regarding the French attitude to "losing the war". They expected that, as in the past, the loser would give up a bit of land, and things would go back to how they were before. They just didn't grasp the whole nazi concept of domination of Europe.
Related to that is the defeatism and panic that set into the French government and military high command almost from the moment of the German invasion. When the surrender came Germany had occupied what, a quarter of France? Large parts (the majority?) of the French army was still intact, indeed the British wanted to land another armoured division in France further down the coast until they realised the French were about to surrender.
In places the French army put up tremendous resistance, and I always find it illuminating to look at the number of Germans killed in the battle of France - we tend to think of them rampaging through the French and British armies with barely a casualty, yet the lost a lot of men (48,000 KIA in 6 weeks is the number I have in my head, I'm sure someone will correct me).
Of course, none of this tells us how the Vichy are viewed in modern day France.
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