France ceased to be not just a Great Power but even a power

In six traumatic weeks, the cardinal reference points of European inter-state relations changed forever. France ceased to be not just a Great Power but even a power, and despite De Gaulle’s best efforts in later decades it has never been one since. For the shattering defeat of June 1940 was followed by four years of humiliating, demeaning, subservient occupation, with Marshall Petain’s Vichy regime playing Uriah Heep to Germany’s Bill Sikes.

T. Judt, Postwar (2005), 113

Our imbecile grandchildren will think they are beautiful because they are old

Vichy is a dreadful place (not disagreeable, not boring, but ugly). There is nothing to attract the eye  - bloated, jowly hotels, built in ridiculous straight lines, pretentious villas planted here and there to accord with the doubtful taste of fat women. These watering places should be razed, [otherwise] our imbecile grandchildren will think they are beautiful because they are old.

Letter from Mitterrand to his cousin, cited in P. Short, Mitterrand: a study in ambiguity (2013), 64