# Jean Luc Picard--how is he viewed in France? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [September 29, 2025, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479 "2025-09-29T13:18:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/21 "2025-09-29T20:47:59Z")
To add even more confusion to Picard’s history, in the stupid _Generations_ movie, his Nexus fantasy life was living in an English Christmas Card (I can’t tell my Victorian from my Edwardian). So apparently, Picard is a self-hating Frenchman. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/22 "2025-09-29T20:50:02Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Monsieur Reeker, ah shall be in mah reedy rheum. I laughed so hard at this I think it’s a sign I need to take a break. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/23 "2025-09-29T21:10:11Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I laughed so hard at this I think it’s a sign I need to take a break. I’m now imagining Captain Picard played by Peter Sellers in the manner of Inspector Clouseau. What is AI for, if not this??? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/24 "2025-09-29T21:13:01Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Thank goodness, because I’m a tea drinker myself and I would have been sad if tea had been utterly unavailable there during my visit. I mean, there are tea drinkers in America, too… but if I’m anywhere but at my home or the home of someone I know well, I won’t assume that there will be any decent-quality tea available. Sure, most places do have tea, but it’s usually something like Lipton’s at best. By contrast, when I’ve visited Ireland (and likewise if I should ever visit England), you can walk into pretty much any random establishment and expect that the tea will be at least decent. Of course, that might well change, sometime in the next few centuries. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/25 "2025-09-29T21:18:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Of course, that might well change, sometime in the next few centuries I mean, the Replicator makes it so you can always get the best tea ever recorded in human history. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/26 "2025-09-29T21:22:19Z")
_Average_ per capita tea consumption in France is a fraction of what it is in England and Ireland. On the other hand, the guy in _Du côté de chez Swann_ was not dipping his madeleine into an espresso, and it is hard to get more French than that. > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I mean, the Replicator makes it so you can always get the best tea ever recorded in human history. It is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/27 "2025-09-29T21:26:33Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > In Season 1, Episode 4 of TNG, Data calls French an “obscure language”. Combine that with “French” people like Picard not speaking it, and the show seems to at least heavily imply that it died out at some point in the past (maybe outside of academia at least). They had the Eugenics War and WWIII in their timeline; France being in densely populated Europe was probably hit hard. And given that French is a minority language on one planet in a large multiworld polity, it makes sense it’d be “obscure” even without that. English likely predominates among human languages just because it was in the right position to do so when humanity went interstellar. If somehow that had happened a few centuries earlier quite possibly the Federation would speak French and _English_ would be the obscure language. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/28 "2025-09-29T21:43:49Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > I’m now imagining Captain Picard played by Peter Sellers in the manner of Inspector Clouseau. “Mr. La Forge, follow that ship!” _[La Forge ejects]_ ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/29 "2025-09-29T21:46:58Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > They had the Eugenics War and WWIII in their timeline; France being in densely populated Europe was probably hit hard. And given that French is a minority language on one planet in a large multiworld polity, it makes sense it’d be “obscure” even without that. Agreed, I even posted about that in the older thread I’d linked to. > [@Did this conversation ever happen in the Star Trek universe?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-conversation-ever-happen-in-the-star-trek-universe/998094/55): > > Earth had gone through some crazy stuff over the centuries of history between modern day and the time of the original Star Trek series. There were the Eugenics Wars (Khan was heavily involved with those) followed by a global civil war of sorts and then finally culminating in World War III, which resulted in genocide and nuclear holocaust. Something like 30% of the entire planet’s population was killed off. A decade after the war ended, Cochran developed the first prototype warp drive and Vulcans made contact with Earth, and began to share their technology and other teachings. In the aftermath of all of that stuff, it would be no surprise if there was some sort of homogenization of Earth culture. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/30 "2025-09-29T21:49:57Z")
Nit noew, Data. You all may be thinking Clouseau, but I’m picturing Pepe le Pew. “ah Mademoiselle Borg, why do you run away.? Ah, my little darling, it is love at first sight, is it not, no?” “I am ze captain, and you are ze first mate. Promotions will follow quickly!” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/31 "2025-09-29T21:54:36Z")
The question then isn’t “why doesn’t Picard have ze Fraanch akzent”, but “Why do Scotty and Chekhov _have_ accents?” I think they are affectations. You wake them up in the middle of the night and they’ll talk just like normal people. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/32 "2025-09-29T21:55:26Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I mean, the Replicator makes it so you can always get the best tea ever recorded in human history. Sure, but it’s already not hard to get high-quality tea. But most American places don’t, anyway. It might be that Picard’s habitual specification of “Earl Grey” isn’t because he likes bergamot; it’s because the specificity is what ensures that the replicator will go for the high-quality pattern. If you just order “tea”, without any qualifiers, you get Lipton. But Lipton doesn’t make an Earl Grey, so if you order that, you get Twinings or the like. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/33 "2025-09-29T21:57:31Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I think they are affectations. You wake them up in the middle of the night and they’ll talk just like normal people. My theory is that they come from insular communities. We see them in Star Trek often. Some provincial place where people keep to themselves for the most part. I’m sure there would be lots of places like that in their version of Earth. Heck, you have people who live in different parts of the same city with different accents in the US. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/34 "2025-09-29T22:00:59Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > My theory is that they come from insular communities. We see them in Star Trek often. Which reminded me of the members of the Bringloidi colony in the TNG episode “[Up the Long Ladder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_the_Long_Ladder).” They were human colonists who’d left Earth a couple of hundred years earlier, and had decided to eschew technology and live an agrarian lifestyle. They had Irish accents. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/35 "2025-09-29T22:06:08Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The question then isn’t “why doesn’t Picard have ze Fraanch akzent”, but “Why do Scotty and Chekhov _have_ accents?” > > I think they are affectations. You wake them up in the middle of the night and they’ll talk just like normal people. Ah, well - perhaps Scotty and Chekhov came from more remote communities where local dialects/languages were still strong despite Chekhov being required to learn English in school? Perhaps Picard grew up in a less remote/more urban or urban-adjacent area where the mainstream language dialect was much more dominant? > [@Chronos](#): > > But Lipton doesn’t make an Earl Grey, so if you order that, you get Twinings or the like. Actually [Lipton does make Earl Grey.](https://www.lipton.com/us/en/our-teas/earl-grey-black-tea-20-pcs) > [@Chronos](#): > > Sure, most places do have tea, but it’s usually something like Lipton’s at best When I was in France the British teas like Twinings were what was usually available. Lipton, too, but it’s not like “American tea” is viewed as particularly exceptional or needed. I don’t recall seeing Lipton outside of the Parisian region but my visit was more than 40 years ago so my recollections aren’t that sharp in regards to such a detail. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/36 "2025-09-29T22:07:24Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > My theory is that they come from insular communities. We see them in Star Trek often. Some provincial place where people keep to themselves for the most part. I’m sure there would be lots of places like that in their version of Earth. Also, some place that managed to avoid getting smashed during WWIII or the Eugenics War, and so maintained more of its original culture. Or even someplace that deliberately resurrected pre-War culture and behavior as much as it could; Chekov would fit as somebody coming from a place like that. He’s basically the Worf of the original series; just exchange “Klingon this” and “Klingon that” for “Russian this” and “Russian that”. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/37 "2025-09-29T22:16:19Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Perhaps Picard grew up in a less remote/more urban or urban-adjacent area where the mainstream language dialect was much more dominant? That’d be a good explanation, but it’s contradicted by canon. Picard’s [character biography](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Jean-Luc_Picard) indicates that he was born and raised in the rural community of La Barre, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France, and lived and worked in his family’s vineyard (seen in the epsiode _Family_) until he left to join Starfleet. And, Picard’s father was noted to have been a traditionalist. His brother, Robert Picard, appears in _Family_, and he, too, was played by an English actor, Jeremy Kemp. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/38 "2025-09-29T22:30:40Z")
Is “rural” the same as “isolated”? We already live in a world where farmers have college degrees and use advanced technology to farm. We live in a world where subsistence farmers/herders off the grid own smart phones and recharge them with solar panels. In the ST future I would only expect more of this, alongside that transporter technology that enables near-instantaneous travel from one point to another. Rural schoolchildren might regularly teleport to school and taking a day-trip to anywhere on the planet might be easily done provided your home/community is part of the global culture. Oh, but then why would there be _isolated_ communities with divergent accents? I dunno - why are Amish so attached to horse-and-buggy transportation? In ST in some ways we actually know more about planets _other_ than Earth than about Earth itself. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/39 "2025-09-29T22:35:29Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Contrast that with Scotty, who was **SCOTTISH** , and Chekov, who was **RUSSIAN** : they had accents, they dropped in regular references to the characters’ backgrounds, etc. This is because they, like so many of the secondary regular characters in TOS, were conceived as one-dimensional stereotypes, to illustrate the wide variety of humans embraced in Star Fleet (some of them eventually were allowed to develop small other facets to their characters). Compare with the crew from Forbidden Planet, all white men, all (one excepted) with bland US accents. Fortunately, that sort of stereotyping by national origin was toned down a fair bit in TNG. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/40 "2025-09-29T22:47:28Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > At least for the American audience, Picard was French, but he wasn’t _FRENCH_, except for a few moments where the writers decided to lean into that a little bit. He was a human, a native of Earth, and a Starfleet Captain, and the fact that he was French rarely came into play. > > Contrast that with Scotty, who was **SCOTTISH** , and Chekov, who was **RUSSIAN** : they had accents, they dropped in regular references to the characters’ backgrounds, etc. Whereas Sulu was more like Picard - the fact that he was Japanese rarely if ever came into play, albeit probably for different reasons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479.md?page=3)