I agree with what you've written and I definitely think the whole going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion attitude, while funny, is grossly inaccurate. That being said, the 20th century was not kind to the French, although a lot of that can be attributed to the opposition they faced. I'm not so certain about the French being at a strategic disadvantage following the end of World War I, at least in terms of terrain. The Maginot Line was a great idea on paper but the Germans just passed through the Ardennes to get around it using a style of warfare that no one was ready for and voila, you nearly bankrupted your country for nothing and are in for a rough 4 years or so.
Anyways, discussion can be illuminating and fun without resorting to trash talking right off the hop, so thanks for that... but you misspelled Charlemagne's name and if you speak any French the end result is kinda funny.
Lol, I was and still am posting from my phone so the spellcheck is off and I have an appetite for military history.
I still believe they were strategically disadvantaged after the Napoleonic Wars.
After Charlemagne's Empire broke down, the various regions of future France had a vague alliance to the French King. Over the centuries France reclaimed more and more power over the counts and dukes of Brittany, Aquitaine, Maine, Anjou, Normandie, etc...one region they didn't fully reclaim was the County of Flanders, the future Low Countries of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Quabbling with Flanders left the French open to the devastations of the Hundred Years War with England. And yes, you can say the English Army was tactically more efficient in the beginning phases of the war, but the French eventually over came it and won the Hundred Years War.
They were about to regain control over Flanders after the Burgundian Wars, but the monarchy got into major distractions with the Habsburg Empire in the Great Italian Wars, the French Civil Wars of Religion, and Franco-Spanish War. Leaving the Low Countries open was the source of France's military problems despite their regional land dominance.
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars allowed France to regain Beligum and The Netherlands, making the realm, in theory, mostly secure. Britain had given up coordinating grand coalitions against Napoleonic France, but after the Russian campaign, liberating the Low Countries was Britain's key to off-shore balancing, and checking France's continental dominance.
It's just that no one foresaw the ramifications of a united Germany under Prussian control. Germany would in the future, exploit the strategic disadvantage that the Low Countries were for France.