it's bizarre that a small tribe on the lower Rhine
gave their name to honesty, directness and freedom,
as well as to children all over Western Europe:
Franck, Franz, François, Françoise, Francis,
Francesco, Francesca, Francesca, Prionsias, Ffrancis,
František, Frans, Ferenc, Francine, Frances, Marie-France...
and, in the Southern Asian term Farangi,
to any European or white-skinned American.
But it took a long time for people between the Loire,
the Pyrenees and the Alps to think of themselves as French.
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