re: "La Belle Epoque"
My grand father fought in the trenches at the Ijser river near Diksmuide.
Provoking floods stopped the Germans.
He would tell us many stories about those years and every time we went to the coast, we'd spend a day there.
At the time, nationalism, honor mixed with arrogance and millions died because of them.
Before the war in Iraq, I remember the former french culture minister Jack Lang warning an american in a TV show that France payed dearly their arrogance and be very careful with that!
The US dove right into the same problems! The "Old Europe" tried to warn, but arrogance prevailed in the US.