They’re just mad they lost the “lingua Franca” of the world title so this is the way for them to hang on to the coattails of relevance. The Normans didn’t even speak Parisian French but a Breton variant and also had with them some Norse words they kept. But they can pretend.

The only thing that made French and English afterwards the lingua francas of the world was the commerce/trade and innovation offered by their speakers.

We could all be using Spanish or Chinese as the lingua Franca if either of them had more influence in the world.

I agree with the sentiment, but Normans speaking a Breton variant of French… Oh gosh… And why "they"? What's with the lumping of 300+ million French speakers with the personal opinion of one person? What's that talk about relevance as if not being number 1 meant that the language was damned?