Series / La Petite Histoire de France

Everyone knows Vercingetorix, Joan of Arc, Louis XIV and Napoléon Bonaparte. Their cousins didn't make the cut of history, though.

La Petite Histoire de France (Eng. The Small History of France) is a French period comedic shortcom in the vein of Kaamelott, created by Jamel Debbouze, Laurent Tiphaine and Frank Cimière for the W9 channel in 2015 and ongoing.

It focuses on four more or less distant cousins of the four famous French Historical Domain Characters named in the page's introduction, and their respective families and entourages. Initially focused on the later three, the fourth season saw the arrival of a new family with Vercingetorix's gallo-roman relatives.

The series regularly jumps from era to era, respectively in 1AC, 1430, 1695 and 1810.

In 1AC, years after the surrender of Vercingetorix, his cousin Yoric, his wife Maelle and their family are making a success in this newly Roman Gaul.

In 1430, Joan of Arc has just been captured by the English, and her cousin François is trying to figure out a way to break her out. Unfortunately, he's never gone past the wacky plan-making idea, under the watchful eye of his patient wife Ysabeau.

In 1695, Louis XIV has banished his cousin Philippe Honoré de Roche-Saint-Pierre from Versailles along with his wife Marie-Louise, leading the pair to try anything to return to court and escape boredom in their country estate.

In 1810, Napoléon Bonaparte keeps on ignoring his cousin Rénata, much to her annoyance and that of her husband Jean Plancher, a Parisian inkeeper.

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Tropes in this work:

• Abduction Is Love: Lena thinks back fondly on the time her husband slaughtered her entire family with an axe and dragged her in chains behind her horse for three days without food to bring her to his home and marry her.
• Abusive Parents: Downplayed, but Baptiste really is the Butt-Monkey of the family.
  Baptiste: Dad, can I ask you something without you getting angry?
  Jean: No.
  Baptiste: Right.
• Action Girl:
  • Catherine is a wannabe one, inspired by her neighbor Joan.
  • Maëlle, who seems to be this by virtue of being the average Gaulish woman.
• Affectionate Nickname: Jean calls Renata "mon petit bouchon", which can be translated by "sweet pea" and literally means "my little cork".
• The Alcoholic:
  • Played for Laughs with Abbot Martin, the resident priest of La Croutinière. Coupled with Can't Hold His Liquor.
  • Little Louis, the biggest drunkard at Chez Bonaparte.
• All Love Is Unrequited:
  • Baptiste is madly in love with Pauline, the inn's waitress. She knows it and doesn't reciprocate.
  • Gwenola has several suitors, and shows no interest in any of them.
• Alternate Timeline: The off-season episodes depict events that would never happen in the canon of the series, such as Ysabeau and Fraçois having a child, or Louis XIV visiting La Croutinière.
• Always Someone Better: Guillemette felt like this about Ysabeau until she realized that she was at least a little nuts like everyone else.
• Ambiguously Bi: Marie-Louise wants to die the exact same way as Philippe does, which is killed in a duel by a jealous husband because they both kept his wife as a mistress.
• Ambiguously Gay:
  • Abbot Martin. His reaction to "your cassock is more or less a dress" essentially amounts to a rather unprompted denial about his alleged affair with the gamekeeper.
  • Feuillade is quick to jump at the occasion to have sex with Frémont on a misunderstanding.
  • Mathilde, the girl Jean and Renata want Baptiste to marry. She is not in the least interested in Baptiste or marriage in general, and dresses in masculine clothes.
    Baptiste: I don't want this marriage, I want to live my life!
    Mathilde: Me too!
    Baptiste: And I want to be free and to marry Pauline!
    Mathilde: Me too!
• Anachronism Stew:
  • While is unlikely but not impossible that Ysabeau could read at all (Joan of Arc reportedly could not), her story predates the invention of the printing press, which means she, a peasant woman, would have a near-zero chance of getting her hands on books like those she's seen reading.
  • Ysabeau is often seen shelling beans, 50 years before the first Europeans set foot in America; in later seasons, Maëlle and Gwenola as well.
  • In the first season, a painting in La Croutinière represents Louis XIV in full Requisite Royal Regalia. This painting was painted in 1701, six years after the time period of the Roche-Saint-Pierres. It is later replaced by a painting of Louis XIII.
  • Most of Marie-Louise's wardrobe, including wigs, as well as Frémont's and half of the furniture at La Croutinière, are about 50 years ahead of fashion. One of her gowns, in particular, is a replica of this gown worn by the marchioness de Pompadour in 1756◊.
  • Marie-Louise and the Abbot once sing "Il court, il court, le furet"^note The ferret is running, running, a satirical song from the Regency, some thirty years after. She also once says "The English have landed" to talk about her period, an expression born after the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
  • Jean and Renata's inn features gas lamps, which were only invented in the 1850s.
  • The uniforms of the inn's military clientele are... all over the place, when they're not completely invented.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Invoked by Catherine when Ysabeau won't believe that Gaspard is pregnant, even though she waxes her ewes' hooves to make them slippery in case goblins try to steel them and leaves a bowl of milk on her doorstep in case a unicorn comes by.
• Arranged Marriage: Jean and Renata want their son Baptiste to date and marry Mathilde, their neighbor and supplier, to eventually inherit the place through her. He does not care for the idea, and neither does she.
• Artistic Licence – Geography:
  • La Croutinière is in Burgundy, near the city of Nevers, but the cook, assumedly a local, speaks with a thick Ch'timi accent, which is from the north of France.
  • Rıza Beğ is explicitely Persian, but the bits of culture that he shares with Philippe and Marie-Louise are much closer to Moroccan.
• Artistic Licence – History: Napoléon I was a master of nepotism and gave all of his family and friends high ranking positions and even crowns; if Renata had really existed, it's unlikely he would have left her to be an inkeeper. Lampshaded: Neither she nor Jean understand why Napoléon hasn't summoned them yet and are furious about it. There is also the fact that they are quite distant cousins. Jean in one episode says that Renata is related to Napoleon by her "great-grandaunt", which makes them third cousins more or less removed.
• Attention Whore: Philippe would do anything to get back in his cousin's favor and for that, he needs to get his attention. In the most desperate ways he can think of.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • Every once in a while between François and Ysabeau, most often in the form of thoughtful gifts and jealousy.
  • Frequent with generally loud, angry, short-tempered Jean.
    • In spite of their constant mistreatments of Le Cloalec'h (see Fantastic Racism below), Jean and Renata have been known to take his defense on the occasion.
      Jean: He may be a Breton, but he's our Breton.
    • He's also shown care for his rival Jules when he was sick.
    • He once lets it slip before Baptiste that the reason the dairyman doesn't yell at his son is that he doesn't love him.
• Baby Factory: The last thing Ysabeau wants to be, especially when she's constantly around Guillemette, her Explosive Breeder sister-in-law. Guillemette is actually exhausted by her many pregnancies and worse, raising all the kids afterwards, but the idea of forgoing sex takes her to a Heroic BSoD.
• Best Friends-in-Law: Adelin, François's best mate, in married to his sister Guillemette.
• Big Brother Bully: Georges, Jean's brother, doesn't hesitate to demean him in public and blatantly steal from him.
• Big Fancy House: La Croutinière, the unfortunately named^note could be translated to Crustiner House country estate Philippe and Marie-Louise are exiled to. Of course, they hate it for not being Versailles, despite how clearly more comfortable it is than their cramped dirty rooms in Versailles.
• Black Comedy: Most often around François and Ysabeau, due to them living in The Dung Ages.
• Blood Knight:
  • Played for laughs with François.
  • Maëlle and Lena aren't too far removed from this trope either.
• The Bore: Abbot Martin's homilies are so soporific that Philippe and Marie-Louise make a game of who can stay awake the longest. They can play several rounds in one sermon.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Marie-Thérèse, Philippe and Marie-Louise's 18 year old daughter; especially to the latter. She's a genuine Daddy's Girl, but monstrously mean to her mother. That being said, she may have a bit of a Freudian Excuse (see Old Man Marrying a Child below).
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Briac, Yoric and Maëlle's ahead-of-his-time son.
  • Gaspard is probably the one who gets the most of it.
  • Poor Frémont is as devoted to his lord and lady as they are zany in their demands.
  • Le Cloalec'h as one of the few Bretons in Paris. He only stays at Chez Bonaparte because for all their abuse, Jean and Renata actually allow him to rent a room.
• Casual Kink:
  • Averted with Philippe, who just can't get into being insulted even though his cousin apparently is.
  • François is very into Ysabeau brushing her hair.
  • Adelin and Guillemette scream at each other as foreplay.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "We're not in Quimper!" from Jean and Renata at about anything Le Cloalec'h does.
  • "The promise of a Roche-Saint-Pierre is a promise carved in stone!" by Philippe. ^note Both roche and pierre are French for stone.
  • "My poor friends... My poor friends!" from the marquis of La Feuillade when exposed to the deeply un-Versaillese world Philippe and Marie-Louise live in.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Renata interprets pretty much anything as an attempt to steal her husband from her.
  • In a less extreme version, Ysabeau really dislikes that the barracks cook keeps hitting on François.
• The Collector: Marie-Louise is very devoted to the improvement of her cabinet des curiosités. Philippe also gets really interested in saints' relics during his tryst with religion.
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • Renata is most often this, along with The Ditz.
  • Gaspard will occasionally say the most insane things, much to the annoyance of Ysabeau and François.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Jean, as soon as he become the head of the district traders' guild, starts embezzling from it, bribing the police to look away and hires his wife for a very lucrative position in which she does nothing.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Gaspard may invent the wildest things, but he does know his ewes and what they communicate with him.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Ysabeau's favorite thing about François is that he doesn't beat her, doesn't rape her, and essentially knows to leave her alone.
• Death by Childbirth: What Ysabeau seeks to avoid by refusing sex and pregnancies.
• Deconstructed Trope: Bookworm Ysabeau and Blood Knight François often discuss the nature of chivalry.
  Ysabeau: A real knight would have helped that poor widow.
  François: No, that's in your books. Real knights strike in the back, abuse the poor, and shit themselves before a battle.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Has its own page.
• Dented Iron: Philippe is covered in scars, half of them from the many duels he likes to fight, half from being The Klutz.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Jean once tries to attract some morbidly curious customers by faking an assault, spreading chicken blood in front of the inn, leaving handprints on the door and screaming bloody murder. The police rush in and catch him very literally red-handed.
  • François once takes a minstrel home from the local prison as a gift for Ysabeau. He forgot that they had ripped the man's tongue out.
• Dogged Nice Guy:
  • Alan, who has a huge crush on Gwenola. She finds his shyness completely unattractive, however.
  • Baptiste, who is handsome, clever and Adorkable, but whom Pauline only sees as a friend.
• Doorstep Baby: Catherine has left several babies on the steps of the church. At least once, in her defense, the priest was the father. Probably.
• Dreadful Musician: Marie-Louise loves to play the harpsichord. Marie-Louise does not know how to play the harpsichord.
• Druid: Gwenola is studying to become one.
• Dumb Muscle: Burghal, Maëlle's brother, who is both The Brute and Too Dumb to Live.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Jean's brother Georges calls him "Chouquette" (a little choux pastry with a name that's definitely cutesy and feminine).
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Abbot.
• Explosive Breeder: Adelin and Guillemette already have ten children, and are expecting the eleventh.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire 1430's story is set between Joan of Arc's capture in May of 1430 and her execution in May of 1431, including Ysabeau's entire pregnancy, the months prior and those after.
• Fantastic Racism: Played With. While there was often a form of regional prejudice in French history, especially with particularly independentist areas like Brittany, Jean, Renata and other Parisians treat Le Cloalec'h like he's from a dangerous, uber-violent civilization on the other side of the planet.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Baptiste dreams of going to America and live adventures in the New World, but Jean is insistent that he should take over the inn.
• Female Misogynist: Lena, who believes that women are "an affront to the gods", and should not talk unless being talked to. Never mind that she wasn't being talked to when she said that.
• Fiery Redhead: Maëlle.
• Friend to All Living Things: Gwenola tries and is fairly successful in being this as part of a druidic studies. She once feeds an annoying suitor to her "friends".
• Foreign Fanservice: In-universe.
  • Lord Northbrock, François's English prisoner, is this to Ysabeau, mostly because he lives by the chivalric ideals she can only read about.
  • Marie-Louise clearly has at least a bit of a crush on Rıza Beğ, their Persian guest.
• The Fundamentalist: At one point, Philippe tries to appeal to the over-religious zeitgeist to get his cousin's attention.

• The Ghost: In one skit, it is revealed that Philippe and Marie-Louise have a son called Louis-Etienne, two years younger than their daughter, but they don't remember it because they sent him to a wetnurse in Normandy and then military school in Gascony. The son is never mentionned again.
• Global Ignorance: Renata thinks one can hop from Paris to Louisiana in a day's trip. Jean corrects that it would take at least a couple of days.
• Going Native:
  • Subverted. Philippe once is delighted to have helped a mare birth her foal, and Marie-Louise proudly serves him a delicious pie she baked herself. They then discuss how if they were suddenly re-invited to live at court, they would drop everything and run back to Versailles.
  • Played Straight with Briac, who fully adopted Roman ways to his parents' despair.
• Gossipy Hens: Philippe and Marie-Louise. Due to the local scene being a lot less of a Decadent Court than Versailles, they're reduced to make up stories about their neighbors.
  Marie-Louise: Baron Falgarone just rubbed his bollocks.
  Philippe: Oh. Crabs?
  Marie-Louise: Think bigger, Philippe. Syphilis.
• Great Offscreen War:
  • The Hundred Years War in the 1430's. François often mentions battling the English and the Burgundians, but he really is more of a local guard rounding beggars and lepers.
  • The Napoleonic Wars in the 1810's. About half of the clientele at Jean's inn are soldiers. He and Renata also often reference "the summer of '89" to talk about the start of the French Revolution.
• Greed: One of Jean's main characteristics, which Renata happily follows along to.
• Happily Married: All main couples at the end of the day.
  • Philippe and Marie-Louise adore each other through and for their mutual ditziness, and are often noted to have a very healthy sex life.
  • Renata all but worships the ground Jean walks on and he cherishes her back just (well, almost) as much.
  • François is fully aware that he hit the jackpot with Ysabeau and often tries to go out of his way to make her happy; while she patiently guides him through his stupidity and brutishness.
• Hidden Depths:
  • François genuinely loves kids and would love to pamper a "little one", boy or girl. His nieces and nephews adore him. He is also a really good ballroom dancer.
  • Renata is surprisingly good at dealing with Shell-Shocked Veterans, like when she uses a trick straight out of The King's Speech to get an order out of a stammering patron.
    Renata: You ain't the first soldier who came back kooky from the battlefield.
  • She also has a lot of insight about the political situation, but plays stupid to lighten the mood.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: The premise of the series. Jean has been known to monetize it (his inn is called "Chez Bonaparte" (Eng. "Bonaparte's"), as well as Ysabeau, who makes and sells "the Maid's Cheese".
• Historical In-Joke: Plethora. The series is filled to the brim with bites of events and culture of each time period to delight those who know their history.
• Human Sacrifice: Yoric is against, but as a druid apprentice, Gwenola is very insistent that she needs some out-of-use slaves to practice on.
• Hypocrite:
  • Ysabeau scolds Gaspard for doing special sales, saying that her cheeses are good enough that they don't need to demean themselves to sell them. She lowers her neckline as soon as he's out of sight. She also despises violence... except when it's useful to her business.
  • Jean and Renata, always and at all times when Le Cloalec'h is concerned. Most importantly, they constantly dunk on him for being from Brittany (a separatist region with a unique culture and language), while Renata herself is from Corsica (a separatist region with a unique culture and language).
• I Am a Humanitarian: Lena's last memory of her mother was that she was "overcooked" during the siege of Alesia.
• I Am One of Those, Too: Feuillade is happy to brag about the years he spent as Louis XIV's ambassador in China... until he meets Rıza Beğ, who actually was the Shah's ambassador in Beijing and speaks fluent Mandarin.
• I Call It "Vera": François calls his sword "The Magnificent", "The Englishman's Bane", "Believer's Light" and "Burgundian Calamity". Ysabeau calls it "Rabbit Butcher", "The Scourge of Dirty Nails" and "Drunkard's Staff".
• Innocently Insensitive: Baptiste, who complains about his life and calls himself his parents' slave... in front of Mondésir, a black man from the West Indies.
• In-Universe Nickname: Gwenola's family sometimes calls her Gwen.
• It Will Never Catch On:
  • Philippe thinks that La Fontaine's Fables are far too childish and unrealistic to actually be meaningful.
  • Renata invents Parisian outside dining. Jean actually likes the idea, but changes his mind when the clients run off without paying.
  • At one point, Baptiste and Pauline learn this new dance called the waltz. His parents think they look ridiculous.
• I Want Grandkids: Philippe and Marie-Louise. No, not from their daughter. From their butler.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Discussed and subverted. When Ysabeau cleans and polishes François's armor until it shines, he tells her about a fellow knight whose armor was so shiny that they nicknamed him "the Hedgehog", after all the arrows he was the target of.
• Language Barrier: Despite being Corsican, Renata does not speak the language. That's why she doesn't realize that a Corsican client she's excitedly listening to is actually Italian.
• Large Ham: François and his friends, Renata and Maëlle are rather loud.
• Last-Name Basis: Between the Planchers and Le Cloalec'h. Only Baptiste calls him Loïc in private.
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: François and Ysabeau only had sex once (on their wedding night) and Ysabeau describes it as similar to "getting trampled by a herd of boars".
• Malaproper: Jean and Renata often call Le Cloalec'h "Le Cloaca". There's a chance Renata isn't doing it on purpose.
• Mama Bear: Ysabeau forbids anyone from getting close to her son, especially François, and gets upset at everything in the house from candles to spoons. To be fair, considering the infant mortality rate...
• Manchild:
  • Gaspard, the wannabe knight who works as a shepherd for Ysabeau. She and François rescued him from life as a beggar and he often acts around them like an 8-year-old with his parents.
  • François himself often gives things about as much reflection as a toddler would.
• Mandatory Motherhood: Ysabeau doesn't want to have children. François is disappointed but hoping to change her mind; as is the entirety of the village.
• Mean Boss: Renata to Pauline. She is often either jealous of how well she does her job (mostly, of Jean acknowledging that she does her job well), or telling her that getting harrassed and fondled by customers is good for business.
• Meaningful Name: Averted. After three months of not knowing how to call Baptiste, it was the priest who christened him who gave him the name of his church (St Jean le Baptiste).
• Nice Girl: Ysabeau and Gwenola. Neither of them are above snapping every once in a while, though.
• No Indoor Voice: It's easier to count the instances when François is not shouting.
• Noodle Incident: Feuillade is hiding at La Croutinière because he got in trouble with Venetians and lives in terror of being found by them. At least Frémont and the Abbot are having a blast terrifying him with Italian accents.
• No Periods, Period: Averted by Marie-Louise, who once tells her husband he can't come to her bedchamber because "the Cardinal is visiting". Played Straight for Philippe, who thinks that she writes letters monthly, as did his lady mother. Even when she explicitely states that she's on her period, he thinks she's talking about calligraphy.^note The French word for period is règles, which is also the word for rulers, which he thinks she's using to draw her margins.
• Odd Friendship: One quickly forms between Maëlle and Flavia, whom she quickly realizes is less a diabolical colonizer and more a very naive, very easily manipulated yet friendly woman.
• Oh, Crap!: When Ysabeau lets it pass that she just wants to avoid Death by Childbirth and wouldn't have sex with François "even if he was handsome". Lucky for her, he doesn't even notice the insult.
• Old Man Marrying a Child: Marie-Thérèse, at 18, has been married for a few years to the 86-year-old duke of Vinteuil. She enjoys his money and title, and is actively trying to make his "death of old age" kick in, for example by making him run after her in the entire castle.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Guillemette means to call her eleventh Benoit, which according to Ysabeau is also the name of her fifth (or eighth, maybe). To be fair she makes sure never to call them.
  • François is delighted to learn that Big François is dead, as he becomes the new Big François. Ysabeau counters that he might become Old François instead, as one of their neighbors has a young son named François.
    François: Too many François in this town.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Ysabeau, patience made woman, successfully juggles between Blood Knight François and Manchild Gaspard to keep all of them alive.
  • Baptiste, the long-suffering son of Jean and Renata, a young man full of ideals and rather far from his parents wacky money-grabbing schemes.
• Out Giving Birth, Back in Two Minutes: Ysabeau always heats up water when Guillemette visit, because she gave birth to her sixth child after laughing at a joke, and pretty much sneezed out the ninth.
• Overly Long Gag: The secret code Napoleon allegedly knocks on the door when he visits the inn.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Jean and Renata have a very healthy sex life. Poor Baptiste's door isn't thick enough.
• The Pig-Pen:
  • Hygiene isn't Gaspard's strong suit. That being said, Ysabeau doesn't seem to mind him eating with hands literally covered in shit as long as he says grace first.
  • Philippe and Marie-Louise... follow the times. A clean-up only involves a drop of perfume, and they fondly remember relieving themselves in the hallways of Versailles due to the few latrines.
• Precision F-Strike: Philippe occasionally drops a far too modern swear word in his fancy 18th century French.
• Precocious Crush: To the extent that Gaspard has the mentality of an eight-years-old, on Ysabeau.
• Racial Face Blindness: Renata, who mistakes a black, Maghrebine, Arabic-speaking customer for another Breton.
• Really Gets Around: Catherine, who proudly deflowered half the county.
• La Résistance: Maëlle is (trying to be) at the heart of one against the Romans. Doesn't help that most of Yoric's clients are Romans themselves.
• Retcon:
  • In an early episode, Marie-Louise says she and Philippe have been married ten years. In later seasons, they have an 18-year-old daughter.
  • In an early episode, Adelin brags that his wife never talks back to him, but that's because he cut out her tongue. Soon later the series introduces his wife Guillemette, François's sister, who very much has a tongue, and she and Adelin have a Like an Old Married Couple / Slap-Slap-Kiss dynamic.
  • Le Cloalec'h's first name often changes (Wiomarc'h or Loïc depending on the season).
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Northbrock is the sensitive guy to François's manly man.
• Servile Snarker: Frémont is the most professional and devoted butler, but he's not above frequent quips, mostly towards the abbot, occasionally towards his lord and lady.
• Shout-Out: Alan wants to call his dream daughter with Gwenola "Boudica".
• Sibling Rivalry: Between Philippe and his brother Henri.
• Significant Name Overlap: François and Ysabeau's baby is accidentally christened François because Ysabeau was scolding her husband during the baptism. She initially wanted to call him Charles, but the priest was having a bad day because François and Adelin accidentally set his church on fire and refused to change it.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: François — his favorite word is "foutredieu", or meaning "God's cum".
• Sitcom Archnemesis:
  • Frémont and Abbot Martin.
  • Jean and Jules, his rival inkeeper from down the street. This is highlighted by the fact that they are dressed and groomed exactly the same.
• Slut-Shaming: Played With due to Deliberate Values Dissonance.
  • Ysabeau is shamed for going out with a bare head, but no one minds that her cleavage shows off three quarters of her boobs.
  • Gwenola, when she goes out fully clothed. Her mother thinks she will get assaulted by boys who will be wondering what she's hiding.^note Granted, that part is unfortunately Truth in Television.
• Suicide as Comedy: When Yorick and Burghal find Lena frozen in the snow.
  Yorick: She must have tried to get eaten by wolves again.
• The Talk: Philippe and Marie-Louise attempt to tell their middle-aged butler about bees and flowers to get some "little Frémonts" running around. Then they take him to the kennel just to be sure.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Childhood friends Catherine and Ysabeau.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Ysabeau is described in-universe as uniquely pretty and elegant for a peasant woman, while François clearly doesn't put the same care in his appearance and hygiene.
• The Unfavorite: Briac against his sister Gwenola. He means well, but his parents have found him insufferable since he returned from business school — from studying in Rome.
• Unintelligible Accent: The cook at La Croutinière speaks in a Ch'timi accent so thick even most Ch'tis in the audience are stumped.
• Unusual Euphemism: Jean and Renata call their son's penis his "Jesus".
• Upper-Class Twit: Philippe and Marie-Louise are this and get away with it by virtue of being Blue Blood in an era of absolutism.
• With Friends Like These...: The marquess of La Feuillade, a friend of Philippe's who is still at court, is always claiming to do everything in his power to restore him to favor, but is better at getting favor for himself.
• You Can Keep Her!: Inverted. When Northbrock's family agrees to pay François his ransom, Northbrock claims that he's worth ten times that and demands the ransom be matched. Of course his family wouldn't pay it now, but that's not the point.

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